


A Sick Wild Child

by queenofliterature



Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Cussing, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Epona is queen, Everyone is soft for feral wild child, Fever, Fluff, Gen, Hallucinations, Hurt/Comfort, Legend is soft pass it on, Nightmares, Pain, Panic Attacks, Poor Wild, Sick Character, Sickfic, Some hintings towards abuse, Time is a dad, Vomiting, Wild and Hyrule are bffs, newsflash
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23797192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenofliterature/pseuds/queenofliterature
Summary: Wild never wanted to be a burden. But what happens when he pushes himself too hard? Will his brothers be there for him?
Relationships: Four & Hyrule & Legend & Sky & Time & Twilight & Warriors & Wild & Wind (Linked Universe), Four & Wild (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Sky (Linked Universe), Hyrule & Wild (Linked Universe), Legend & Wild (Linked Universe), Sky & Wild (Linked Universe), Time & Twilight (Linked Universe), Time & Wild (Linked Universe), Twilight & Warriors (Linked Universe), Twilight & Wild (Linked Universe), Warriors & Wild (Linked Universe), Wild & Wind (Linked Universe)
Comments: 145
Kudos: 840





	1. Last Watch

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all this is my first story! I know the ages aren't completely accurate but it is how I see them. Thank you for reading I hope you enjoy! My Tumblr is Queenof-Literature and I do take requests for one-shots for Linked Universe. This idea was created by Jojo not me. More chapters to come!

Wild felt like death. No, having cheated death hundreds of times, he could safely say this felt much worse.

Wild had the last watch of the night out of his group of nine including him. He sat in a tree that overlooked all his fellow travelers and the area surrounding them. As hard as he was trying to focus, to protect his friends, everything ached like a Moblin had slammed their fists into him a thousand times over. He was absolutely freezing, no matter what doublet or jewelry he called from his slate, he still trembled and shook so hard he could barely hold his bow. Wild prayed that a monster didn’t wander into camp, because even if he moved a single inch he felt he might throw up or pass out from the pain in his head. Overall he was absolutely miserable… but he had a job to do, and people to watch over.

As time passed Wild only felt worse, and looking forward to the day of travel in his Hyrule only increased his misery. The sun soon began to rise and Wild knew he would soon have to make his way down the tree and cook breakfast. He loved cooking and was happy to ensure he gave his friends a proper meal after so long of them somehow living without being able to even fry an egg, but he didn’t feel like he could move a single limb. But he had to hopefully make his way down the tree before anyone saw his pain. He didn’t need to slow them down, didn’t need to be a burden, didn’t need to fail. Not after… not after 100 years ago. He didn’t deserve to take a sick day, in the wild you had to keep moving. 

He began to scootch back to the center of the tree in order to make his descent. All of his limbs felt like lead. He put his first leg down and crawled slowly down the tree. Already he couldn’t seem to breath, and he only grew more nauseous. He felt himself grow dizzy and everything around him began to swirl into a kaleidoscope of color. He forgot everything in that moment, where he was, who he was, what he was doing. Black started to cloud his vision and he let it, he just wanted the pain to be over. Unaware of it, he slowly let go of his branch and began to tumble to the ground, a yelp leaving his hoarse throat without his permission. He felt a sharp and sudden blow in his ribs, and he felt himself gasp as the darkness overtook him. 

Twilight awoke to the sound of a yell and an odd thud within the camp. Instantly he leaped up, sword in hand. Eyes darting quickly around the camp, he could see Time, Legend and Warriors on their feet, and the others starting to wake as well thanks to the commotion. Twilight’s eyes darted around camp and landed on a sight that made his blood freeze and skin turn cold in horror. Laying on the ground on the other side of camp was Wild, face down and not moving a muscle. Twilight bolted over to his cub and slid to his knees in front of him. His logic overtaking his worry for the moment, he checked for neck and back injuries. Finding none, he slowly turned over his protege. Wild let out a pitiful whine deep in his throat that made Twilight’s heart clench. He barely noticed Time and the others circling around in confusion and worry. He only saw his protege laying stone cold on the ground.

“Hyrule!” Twilight snapped at Hyrule to get over to his cub as quickly as possible. Hyrule took no offense, he too was worried for his partner in crime. Time kneeled and gently laid his hand on Twilight’s shoulder, and placed the other on Wild’s forehead. A frown appeared on Time’s normally stoic and mischievous face. 

“He’s burning up.” Time tried to keep his worry under control, he had to keep his calm for the younger boys. Hyrule also felt Wild’s forehead and winced in sympathy, but the most immediate thing they had to worry about was Wild’s fall. He slowly felt Wild’s body for any injuries. He luckily did not seem to have any broken bones from his apparent fall from his post. Hyrule then felt his ribs and panicked slightly before pushing his dread down. 

“It feels like he has some broken ribs. I need a red potion and someone needs to help me lift his tunic above his chest so I can see the damage.” Hyrule commanded in what he hoped was a steady voice. Warriors and Legend both ran off to their bags to get potions, while Four watched them to make sure those two idiots didn’t get in a fight somehow. 

“I’ll help.” Stated Twilight. He would do anything to ensure his cub was okay.

“Okay lift him up so I can get his tunic up to his arms.” Hyrule said as he had already begun bunching up Wild’s tunic. Twilight nodded as he gently lifted Wild up so his chest was off the ground. Wild’s face scrunched up in pain and few tears released with a whimper. Twilight and Time felt their hearts break, along with everyone else in the circle and a recently returned Legend and Warriors. Wild tried to never show his pain, and must be in a large amount of it to do so because of a simple movement. After what felt like hours but was probably only seconds, Hyrule got Wild’s tunic as high as it would go and he gently set Wild back down. He heard Wind let out a soft gasp and Twilight had to refrain from doing the same. Wild’s rib cage was covered in black and purple with many painful-looking scrapes. He looked like he had taken a million hits with clubs directly to his chest. But most prominent of all was a stab wound that appeared a few days old that had turned a sickly shade of green, obviously infected. Twilight heard Legend curse at the fact the cub had obviously hidden an injury from them, and now it had been infected. How long had he suffered? Did he even notice the infection? Why didn’t he tell Twilight? Didn’t Wild understand he could trust him? Could trust all of them? They were friends, no more than that. They were brothers. Wind and Wild were the two youngest and the troublemakers. Hyrule was somewhere in between the dumb younger one and the calm middle one. Four was the middle child done with everyone’s shit. Sky was the calmer older teen while Legend and Warriors were the two older teens that fought everyday, but would become protective over each other in an instant. Twilight was somewhere in the upper teens compared to his companions and therefore took the younger ones under his wing, but especially Wild. And Time was the oldest brother/father figure. Was Twilight a fool to believe all this? Did Wild not realize he had a family he could talk to?

Hyrule began to press into his ribs to see the damage done as Wild continued to groan and whimper and tears continued to fall. Twilight ran his hands through Wild’s hair and whispered words of encouragement, comfort and pride in his ear. 

“Okay there doesn’t seem to be internal bleeding. This wound is obviously infected though and he has multiple broken ribs. I need potions.” Hyrule gave his diagnoses and no sooner that he got his final words out did Legend and Warriors kneel beside Wild. Twilight had to force himself to move to Wild’s side as Warriors gently lifted the teen’s upper half into his lap and opened a bottle, trying to ignore Wild’s cries of pain. He slowly poured some of the bottle down Wild’s throat to prevent him from choking, but Wild was refusing to drink it. Legend sighed and rubbed Wild’s throat to coax the potion down, careful not to press too hard. Legend soothed his hair as Wild slowly whined and drank the potion through his sore throat, leaning into Legend’s hand as he did so. It was odd to see Legend so soft, but no one was really surprised. 

Wild began to slowly heal, his broken ribs simply becoming bruised, and his infection healing as much as the potion could. 

“That’s all the potion will heal with the infection running through his body.” Hyrule sighed as he stroked Wild’s cheek to try and calm him. 

“But will he be okay?” Wind cried out. Four put his hand on his shoulder in silent comfort, anticipation for the answer in his eyes, and Sky wrapped his arm around Wind’s small shoulder. 

“He should be fine.” Hyrule stated to the huge relief of the group around him. “But potions won’t heal the sickness and infection running through him, the infection had already taken hold by the time we healed them. Not even my magic can help right now. We have to let his bruises and infection run its course. It seems severe, so we should probably take turns watching him so that we know for sure his body is healing properly. And no, Twilight, you are not going to stay with him all day and all night.” Hyrule looked pointly at Twilight, who was about to protest if not for Time’s steady look in his direction that promised a lecture if he disobeyed. So he resigned to simply nod, looking down at his cub, who seemed like he was struggling to breathe.

Wild could feel himself drifting in and out of consciousness. Everything felt like it was on fire, but most of the pain was centered around his chest area. He didn’t know what happened or why he was in so much pain, but he didn’t seem to know anything at the moment. His brain felt covered in fog in between passing out.

Suddenly he was moving, rolling over with no control and everything in his body flared. He heard a sound vaguely and could barely recognize it as himself. All he felt was pain, nausea, and weightlessness. He believed he passed out again before he felt himself being lifted up. He cried out in pain, and his face felt wet but he didn’t understand why. What was happening? 

Once again Wild drifted away until he felt pressure on his chest. Hylia everything hurt so bad. What did he do to deserve this? Did he fail again? He vaguely felt someone running hands through his hair and whispered something he couldn’t hear. Everything seemed to echo and die out around him. He felt himself being lifted onto something warm as something was pressed into his mouth. His throat hurt so bad, maybe if he didn’t swallow the pain would go away. That choice faded out of his mind as something pressed gently into his throat, forcing him to swallow. He felt someone soothing his hair and he leaned into the touch. He was burning and the hand was so cool… 

He could feel his chest mending, as some conscious thought came back into his mind. But it was still so hard to breathe. He could hear voices above him, but he couldn’t make out what they were saying. 

After some more time in the void, he felt himself being lifted into someone’s arms. He groaned and felt his head loll into a cold shoulder, it felt like armor. He sighed and leaned into this person’s touch more. Said person tightened their hold on him as he could feel them begin to move. 

With that, he felt himself drift back into the comfortable darkness where nothing could hurt him.


	2. Reflection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group each thinks about their relationship with Wild as he's taken back to camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much to those who have commented on and read my work. It means a lot! I will not lie to you. This is not a plot-heavy story. It is just an excuse to write hurt/comfort and later a lot of fluff. I have no shame about this. Hope you enjoy the second chapter and I hope you and your family and friends are doing well! (Side note. In this story, the boys have found out Twilight and his changes into a wolf, but still call him Wolfie to annoy him).

Time was extremely frustrated, and he knew the other boys could tell. The pup’s protege hid an injury from all of them and suffered because of it. An infection was now coursing through his body and while he would make it to the other end, the recovery process would be painful and longer than the average sickness. Time had seen infections such as this one. They caused severe illness, stabbing pain, and horrifying delusions in extreme cases, and Time wasn’t ready to see one of his boys in that state. But he was the unofficial leader of these boys and he would make damn sure they were all alright in the end, no matter what it took. 

Time looked at Wild’s face, squinted in pain in his sleep, and sighed. He had sighed a lot with these boys around, mainly in exasperation. Wild was a work in progress but no one minded, they all had their traumas. But Wild couldn’t seem to understand that he had people to care about him deeply all in their own ways. And that saddened all of them. 

Time took one last look at Wild’s pained and scarred face, and turned his attention to the boys around their brother-in-arms. 

“We’ll stay here for today. It’s not the best decision, but Wild needs rest and is in no condition to travel. We’ll do as Hyrule said and take turns keeping watch over him. This infection is bad and he will need help getting through it. Four I’m trusting you with cooking something edible. Sky, you’re in charge of keeping Hyrule away from the cooking pot.” Time held back a smirk at Hyrule’s noise of indignation. “Twilight you can keep an eye on the cub for a while but I expect you to rest and eat. We do not need another man down if we hope to make any progress tomorrow. Let’s get Wild into his bedroll and we’ll go from there.” As Time said his last sentence, he gently scooped up Wild in his arms, one around his shoulder and the other behind his knees. Wild let out a groan and Time felt a stab of guilt for being part of the reason behind his pain. Wild seemed to instinctively curl further into Time, most likely because Time was wearing his armor which was cooled with the morning breeze. Time smiled slightly at the childlike actions of the young hero.

Once Wild was situated in his arms, he started to head towards Wild’s bedroll, with the rest of the group trailing like lost puppies, all trying to think of something to do to help.   
~  
Wind was worried. All of his band of heroes felt like the older siblings Wind never had. He resented being treated as the youngest and therefore most delicate, but the group had let up after a small amount of time when they realized how much their babying bothered him sometimes. But Wind appreciated how much they cared for him. He loved all of his brothers and bonded with them over different things. With Wild, he bonded over the sea and coasts of different Hyrules. Wild couldn’t sail like he could, but he did have some funny stories and experiences. Like how he electrocuted himself trying to fish (How?). Wild didn’t talk to anyone at first, so when he finally had a conversation with Wind, although short, Wind was ecstatic. Asking question after question about his journey that Wild patiently answered with his limited usage of his voice at the time. What was his favorite color? Where did he get his tunic? It’s blue like his present from his grandma! Why did he keep his hair that long? Does he just like it that way? Eventually, Warriors had to step in and tell Wind to let Wild breath when he saw the shy teen becoming slightly uncomfortable with the attention, but their relationship was close after that. Wild would always let Wind braid his long hair as he cooked and always listened to his stories about the Great Sea and Tetra and her pirate gang. It was really nice. And now he looked on the brink of death!

When Wind found out from Hyrule that Wild was hiding an infection, Wind was sad. Wild could have told anyone! Wind wouldn’t have made fun of him! He knows what it’s like to be babied and if it bothered Wild that much they could tell Time together! Wind knew he shouldn’t be offended, Wild was just starting to get used to touches and talking for long amounts of time in their small group. He still had a ways to go with teamwork and they all knew that. But Wind just wanted Wild to be okay. And he would be. Wind would make sure of it. Aryll still needed to meet all of her new older brothers, and he had enough knowledge of his grandmother’s soup recipe to assault Wild with bowl after bowl until he felt better.   
~  
As Sky watched Wild being carried in Time’s arms, he felt disheartened. Wild was one of the last people in Hyrule to deserve to be in the amount of pain he was clearly in. Sky looked at Wild leaning into Time’s hold and smiled, at least slightly, at the sight. It took a team effort, but Sky was the person who first touched Wild without a flinch. When it happened Sky kept calm and smiled on the outside, but on the inside he was screaming with joy. It was a simple hand to the shoulder but it was one of the biggest steps Wild had taken so far. Time had been the first person to touch him out of the group in the beginning. Trying to put his hand on Wild’s shoulder as a welcoming gesture after he joined, only to have the poor teen jump away like he had been burned before Time even made solid contact. He then quietly excused himself and went to the back of the traveling group. Anytime anyone would touch Wild in a friendly manner, he would bolt. It took Sky a while after that to attempt contact, he didn’t want the poor guy to be terrified of him! One night while they were having a conversation around the campfire, the subject of Wild’s past came up. He looked like he was trying not to shake while he told the horrifying story of Guardian lasers, memory loss, and loneliness even before Ganon. He kept looking to Twilight, who would give him encouraging smiles, and Sky assumed Twilight had tried to get Wild to open up a little, and the main story all just spilled out. He could see the look of horror and sympathy on his fellow traveler's faces, and Twilight looked like he wanted to reach out but was scared of Wild’s reaction. So Sky made a terrifying decision. If this didn’t work Wild would most likely flee into the forest for hours so he had to be cautious. 

Sky made eye contact first with Wild first, so that it wouldn’t be a surprise, He then slowly lifted his hand, not above his face in case it looked in Wild’s mind he wanted to hit him. And slowly Sky brought his hand down on Wild’s shoulder. He didn’t flinch! Oh, thank Hylia he didn’t flinch! Sky would relive that terrifying moment over and over again if it meant he would get to see the precious ways Wild’s eyes lit up when he too realized he didn’t shield away.  
~  
Wild was the craziest motherfucker Warriors had ever met. He had seen that kid hop on a Lynal's like a horse and ride it for as long as possible. He had watched him light forests ablaze, ride bears in his underwear and jump off the highest cliffs into the water below. So watching that same feral gremlin being so still except for the occasional wince and whimper was like a blow to the chest. Warriors really enjoyed the company of the kid when he wasn’t being batshit insane… well even then, it was fun to watch. Legend and Warriors may bicker at least 3 times a day, but when it comes to the safety of one of the younglings in their group, they might as well have been telepathic. The second Hyrule asked for potions Legend and Warriors knew what to do. Warriors knew he probably shouldn’t have taken Wild from his mentor when they returned with the potions, but he wasn’t thinking about anything except making sure Wild got better. Although Warriors would never admit it, this was the kid that taught him to properly tame a horse. 

He was used to the castle steeds for the most part, or horses that were at least slightly domesticated. But everything in Wild’s Hyrule lived up to its namesake. So when Warriors and Wild were alone one afternoon passing time near a stable, Wild offered to teach him. Warriors wasn’t necessarily scared of the wild horses but he didn’t feel like getting a kick to the chest and end up with a few broken ribs to end the evening. When he told Wild as such, Wild simply laughed and told him to pick one. He picked a horse that looked pink in the sunlight, and Wild ran off to tame it. She was a stubborn one but after many falls to the ground and giving Warriors about five heart attacks, Wild brought him the horse. She was then named Bella and Warriors fell in love with her gentle but stubborn personality. Wild taught him to train a wild horse to stay on the paths around his Hyrule and to adjust them to wearing a saddle. All the while Warriors couldn’t help but marvel at the pyromaniac Hero of Wild being the most gentle being in Hyrule and cooing at the horse to calm it down when she was spooked. It made Warriors feel an odd sense of pride. And from the moment Wild registered Bella in the stable for him to visit whenever they returned, Warriors knew they were brothers.   
~  
Wild once told Four that he was a calming presence in a group full of chaos, which was funny coming from the God of chaos himself. While Four’s eyes sometimes twitch involuntarily at Hyrule and Wild’s antics, he didn’t try to stop them unless it was terribly dangerous. Four knew Wild was called that for a reason, he needed to be free to an extent. Four enjoyed talking to Wild. They didn’t need to talk about the past, or the present, or the future, they could talk about anything they wanted. It could be somewhere about their adventures or the weapons they liked. Well, Wild’s favorites before they broke on him. That’s one of the things that worried Four the most, Wild breaking weapons, bows, and shields. He could tell from the way Wild fought Guardians that at least one scar was from his shield breaking at the wrong moment, forcing him to take the Guardian’s laser head-on. And Hylia above wasn’t that how he died in the first place? Every time something broke on Wild, it sent a spike of paralyzing fear shooting through his heart. Once a sword broke on him right as he was making a risky move to attack a bokoblin from Warriors' Hyrule. He almost didn’t make it out of that one. 

Four decided then and there that he would make something to last. The next time he had access to a forge he spent days crammed within, not letting anyone in except Time and Legend to get their opinions. He wanted it to be one of the best swords he had ever made. Finally, when it was finished, he surprised Wild. He presented it to Wild when he walked with him at the back of the group on a clear day to not overwhelm him with other eyes on him. Wild was doing better at socializing and chatting at the front of the group, but sometimes he got overwhelmed and lipped to the back. The others would check-in by simply asking how he liked his surroundings or something simple, but didn’t crowd him. Four presented the sword a little awkwardly, just now realizing how slightly out of the blue it was. It was a sword that had a sky blue tint to it, similar to the color of Wild’s tunic, and Sky had helped him paint the flower, Wild had called it the Silent Princess, going up along the blade of the sword. Four knew the paint would be chipped but he wanted it to at least be beautiful when it was presented. When Wild saw it, and then realized it was for him, Four could have sworn he saw tears gathering at the corners of Wild’s eyes. Without thinking Wild jumped on Four in a hug and murmured thank you’s over and over until his voice was slightly hoarse. At first, Four didn’t know how to respond. Twilight hugged Wild more and more now that he was getting used to touches, but he had never seen Wild jump into one so enthusiastically. Four gladly returned it after a moment of shock.

Except when Wild didn’t use it, he was worried he had made a mistake. He asked Wild about him not using the sword he made. He assured Wild he wasn’t offended, but he needed to know if something was wrong, like if the balance was wrong. Wild blushed a deep red and stumbled through an explanation, that he was terrified he would break the blade Four made specifically for him like he breaks everything else. Four had to assure him a million times that using it was what it was there for and he could forge another, but Wild still rarely used it. But Four made him promise he would use it if he needed it and Wild agreed. As far as Four knew, it was still in peacefully tucked in his slate.   
~  
Hyrule didn’t know how he had become the unofficial medic for the team of heroes. He supposed it was because of his healing magic, but still, it was a stressful job when someone was seriously injured. This job got ten times more stressful when it was his best friend, who was more stubborn about “being fine” than even Twilight and Time, which was quite impressive.

Hyrule had bonded sooner with Wild than most of the others except Twilight and Sky. Hyrule believed that as wanderers, they were both just drawn to each other, like they knew what the other had experienced. Both felt at home off of the main roads, running around the forest among the mushrooms and trees. They were mildly responsible at first until Hyrule learned of a beautiful art called Shield Surfing, then it all went downhill, literally. Wild taught Hyrule the perfect hills to use this ancient technique passed down from the Gods themselves. It was hard to find his balance at first, but once he did they spent the afternoon crashing into each other and giggling like madmen. Until Wolfie finally found them and dragged their asses back to camp. 

After that, they always snuck away when Hyrule was antsy or Wild was overwhelmed. Sometimes Hyrule would use Wild’s slate to take dumb pictures like when Wild surfed right onto a Lynal. Or other times, they would just lay among the fireflies and look at the stars and talk, or sit in comfortable silence. No matter what, it helped them cope with the changing worlds around them. After all, the stars still existed in every Hyrule.   
~  
When Wild was better Legend was going to kill him. The idiot had hidden a stab wound from them, and then gone and had let it get infected. Now he was in pain and whimpering and there was nothing Legend could do. Legend had made the promise that he wouldn’t get attached to any of these so-called heroes when they first all came together. Their jobs were dangerous and caring was a liability. But as time went on and more Links joined their little ensemble, or band as Wind called them, that got harder to do. Now Legend had to grudgingly admit that he cared for all of his brothers-in-arms, even Warriors he supposed. 

And now one of them had gone and gotten himself sick and infected. It wasn’t fair, Wild didn’t deserve this. But life wasn’t fair, Legend had learned that very quickly. Legend had to admit he really loved this dumb fucking kid. He was fun and loving and had overcome so much. Legend was wary of him at first. He had been completely silent, barley even signing when they first met. But Sky, Twilight, and Hyrule slowly coaxed him out of his shell, and one night they both couldn’t sleep, so they both happened to be at the fire. Wild had been scrolling through his slate, and Legend had asked how much it could hold. So what? Curiosity got the best of him. Wild quietly answered his questions and showed him his armor. Legend and Wild talked for hours about the fascinating things they collected (not hoarded like Warriors would say), and how they were of use. Wild seemed scared of his reaction to all of his jewelry and what he called the Gerudo vai outfit. When Legend asked to see one outside the slate since it seemed so finely made, Wild’s shoulder seemed to lose some tension and he brought out his Sapphire Circlet. The two simply talked for the rest of the night, and some more serious topics were brought out, such as Wild’s fear of crowds and strangers. It was sometimes hard to tell when a Yiga Clan member was ready to jump out and attack him if he didn’t talk to them first. Legend told him vaguely of some adventures and how he didn’t like falling asleep because he didn’t want to dream anymore. He didn’t elaborate far, but Wild understood after the Shrine of Resurrection. After that night the two began to interact more, and enjoy each other's company. And if anyone else saw their bedrolls closer some nights, or Wild shuffling closer to Legend in Castle Town, no one said anything.   
~  
Once again his cub was suffering, and once again there was nothing Twilight could do. As he watched Time carry his cub away, he felt sick himself. He would never regret taking on Wild as his protege, not for a single second. He loved that kid like he loved the kids in Ordon. He was his little brother and he deserved the world. But all he got was pain. Twilight was frustrated, of course, Wild hid an infected injury from them for Hylia’s sake. Wild was getting better about trust and coming forward with problems, but he still had a hell of a way to go. 

Twilight flashed back to a night some time ago. When Twilight was on watch one night, he heard shuffling and quiet murmuring. He turned to see Wild in the midst of what looked to be another nightmare of his death. He was already a wolf, using his heightened senses for hearing monsters, and raced over, careful not to wake anyone. He nudged Wild with his snout as Wild jumped up with a strangled scream. His haunted eyes turned to Twilight and latched onto him and sobbed into his fur within a matter of seconds. 

“I-I’m so-sorry Twi I-I-didn’t mean to bother you. B-b-but this one was so so bad Twi.” Wild sobbed as his voice cracked. Twilight took a risk and shifted back to his human form to talk to him. If Wild wanted him in his wolf form he would shift back instantly. Anything to make him feel better. Wild continued to murmur apologies and Twilight's heart broke. Wild could never bother Twilight with his problems. Hylia knows he has far too many for his age. Twilight lifted the cub into his lap and hugged him fiercely as he rocked back and forth. He ran one hand through Wild’s disheveled hair as he whispered soothing words into his ear. Telling him to never be sorry for feeling things. It wasn’t healthy to keep them bottled. Wild’s hands clutched Twilight’s pelt as his sobs slowly turned into soft hiccups.

“Do you need to talk about it?” Twilight whispered as he still rocked Wild. When he received no answer, he looked down as far as he could to find his cub fast asleep, tucked in the crook of Twilight's neck, hands still clutched in his pelt. Twilight let out a small chuckle and stayed like that for the rest of his watch, throwing a rock at Warriors’ leg to wake him up for his turn. Warriors was about to yell at him, but then noticed the small teen in Twilight’s arms. He gave Twilight an understanding smile and took his watch without protest. No one knew who took the picture on Wild’s slate the next day of Twilight and Wild curled up under Time’s cloak, and Wild never had the heart to delete it even if it made him slightly embarrassed. Even if he did, Wind had an extra pictograph.  
~  
Twilight smiled slightly at the memory. He calmed down slightly when remembering how many people cared for their Wild Child.


	3. Distant Feeling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all! Thank you for the support on this story. Sorry about the slow updates, I've been quite exhausted lately. I hope you enjoy Chapter 3! I'm sorry it's a bit short.

Wild could feel himself drifting in and out of consciousness. It felt like a bear was sitting on his chest, all he could do was focus on wheezing in enough oxygen to keep himself going. He could feel himself being lifted, and that was bad enough, but then someone was forcing his arms above his head. Hylia it hurt, it hurt so bad. He tried to curl in on himself but whatever was holding him wouldn’t let him. He felt someone talking against his ear but he couldn’t even begin to comprehend what they were saying. Everything was flaming hot and ice cold at the same time and he just wanted it to be over. Finally, he could feel himself being laid down again and shivered when something cold was pushed onto his chest. When he felt his body being lifted again, he finally passed out from the exertion his body was under. 

Trying to find something for Wild’s mind to clutch onto was like trying to grab a fish in a stream. Link, wait no… that wasn’t right… his name was Wild. Why did the name Link seem so familiar? All he could feel was cold seeping into his body like his veins were made of ice. He could hear someone telling him to open his eyes. Wild recognized the voice from somewhere, he just didn’t know where. It made him feel safe though, so Wild tried to listen to it. With incredible effort, he managed to pry his eyes open. Everything was blurry, but he could see an outline with blond hair. Distantly his mind acknowledged that he could finally breathe better and the presence made him feel warmer. Wait he had blond hair didn’t he?

“Dad?” Wild tried to say, but his tongue felt like metal and wouldn’t work right much to Wild’s frustration. It wasn’t a memory, but a feeling, of a man with blond hair. A large hand over his the first time he held a sword. But it was gone as soon as it had come. “I’m cold.” was all Wild could say before he was oblivious to the world around him again.   
~  
Twilight watched as Time gently laid Wild on his bedroll. Sometime between the journey from Wild’s tree he was perched in, he started shivering as if he was in the Hebra Mountains. His muscles were quivering and straining, his entire face was red from heat, his chest was heaving just to get air in and out, the list went on. His breathing was especially worrying, it sounded like he was drowning. It seemed he wasn’t the only one who noticed.

“I think I have something for his breathing, but I need you to get his tunic off completely and get him in a shirt that’s easily replaced, I need to see what I'm doing.” Legend declared as he went to search through his bag. Sky volunteered an extra shirt he had that had some patches and stains from the grass of different Hyrules. 

“Okay Cub, up and at em’,” Twilight whispered as he hefted Wild up and against his chest. Wild let out a gasp as he was lifted into Twilight’s arms, dead weight against him. 

“Sky, can you help me with his tunic, please?” Twilight asked the other teen. Sky simply nodded and sat next to Twilight on Wild’s bedroll. Sky slowly tried to wrestle Wild out of his tunic, whispering quiet apologies as Wild whimpered in pain. As Twilight lifted Wild’s arms over his head to make room for Sky to fully remove his tunic, Wild let out a strangled scream that made the entire camp flinch. 

“I’m so sorry Wild.” Sky said hurriedly as he tried to get the tunic off as fast as possible. Wild trying to curl in around his bruises to ease the pain wasn’t helping. Finally, the tunic was off and placed carefully to the side, and Twilight managed to lay Wild back onto his bedroll. A few minutes passed with the group not knowing what to do as Wild continued his battle for breath, Twilight gently wiping tears away and Sky brushing hair aside. 

“I found it!” Legend announced to the camp as he ran over to the small group huddled around their sick member. He screwed off the top to reveal an odd green substance that smelled strongly of medicinal herbs. Twilight scrunched up his nose at the smell as Legend spread some on his fingers. Gently, Legend spread some on Wild’s chest, who shivered under the sudden cold. Legend continued to spread the medicine over Wild’s chest up to just under his collarbones. 

“That should start to kick in soon.” Legend stated as he closed the lid to his medicine and went to clean his hand. “He’s freezing though, you better get him in that shirt.” Twilight and Sky simply nodded and began the process of helping Wild into Sky’s old and worn shirt, hoping the salve would help with the pain this time.

It felt like hours for Twilight before Wild’s breathing finally seemed to become easier. Wild was still shivering, even after Twilight tucked him into his bedroll and laid his pelt over the cub. Wind, Sky, and just about every other boy in camp had offered their blankets to cover their friend, but Time refused. It was dangerous for Wild to have too much heat forced upon his body with his fever coming and going. 

“How did this happen?” Four questioned quietly. Everyone stared at him, silently asking him to elaborate. “He’s sick because of the infection, right? But how did that happen. Yeah, Wild has been on his own for so long he still is working on telling us when he needs help, but he’s not stupid. He knows how to take care of an injury. He’s a chaotic little gremlin but he’s still smarter in the wild than almost all of us combined, so how did it get infected in the first place?” Four was staring into the cooking fire Warriors managed to make, trying to find the answer. He knew it was silly, but he blamed himself slightly for not noticing the signs of Wild’s infection. 

“Maybe he was already sick,” Hyrule stated as he put a comforting hand on Four’s shoulder. “He’s amazing at hiding when he’s feeling unwell and continuing on because he needed to. The best we can do is support him and help him know he’s not alone, and he doesn’t have to hold the world on his shoulders alone either. He has eight others to fall on, just like we fall on him sometimes.” Hyrule was very wise for his age, causing Four to smile slightly and nod, feeling a bit better about the whole situation. Hyrule simply had that effect on people.

“Mfm.” The whole camp snapped their attention to Wild’s bedroll. Twilight looked down to see Wild’s eyes flickering under closed lids. Time walked over and put a hand on WIld’s forehead.

“Hey, bud. Mind opening your eyes for me.” Time said in a steady but soft voice. Wild groaned again. Slowly blue eyes flickered open. But instead of the intelligence and mischief they usually held, there was a confused and blank look.

“Da’? ‘M cold.” Wild managed to slur out before his body shuddered and blank eyes closed again. The entire camp was frozen, eyes on Time. Had Wild really called Time “Dad”? Did Wild have a memory of him and Time simply looked like the man 100 years ago that raised the hero? Everyone saw Time as the father figure that was trying to control eight dumbass kids, but no one admitted that besides a few jokes and mocking calls when Time stopped them from doing something fun (read dangerous). 

No one knew how Time was going to react, even Time himself. Similar questions were racing through his head. But in the end, he simply gave a small smirk and ran his hand through Wild’s ratted hair. Everyone let out a sigh of relief, except Wind, who burst out laughing. 

“Hey Dad, will you tuck me in tonight?” Wind was doubled over cackling where he sat next to Warriors, who fondly rolled his eyes and ruffled the younger’s hair. The rest of the group let out chuckles. Hyrule watched on with a small smile. Most of them either had father figures back home or never had one at all, and Time would never be their real father. But Hyrule liked to imagine that Time is what a father would be like if he had one growing up, strong and stern, but humourous and kind as well. And Hyrule knew that with all of them around, Wild would be okay.


	4. Insecurity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild's infection makes him delusional.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all thank you so much for all the support! I'm sorry again for the slow updates. There's been a lot of work with finishing up school. Warning: This chapter has a panic attack and vomiting. Hope you enjoy!

Wild belonged with nature, it was in his name. He loved the rustling of the leaves, the singing of the grass, the - oh, someone was calling his name.

“Wild! How many times do I need to call your damn name?” Time snapped, and Wild realized he was only inches away from his face. He took a tiny step back in fear and confusion. Time almost never cussed... 

“Wild get your head out of your ass and pay attention!” Wild looked back up to see Twilight beside Time, glaring at him.

“U-um I’m s-s-sorry.” Wild stuttered out, hand twitching to lift his hood over his head and shrink within it.

“O-oh? Y-y-you’re s-s-s-sorry?” Legend mocked in a high pitched voice. The rest of the group chuckled while Wild flushed and finally pulled his hood up. They knew he didn’t like it when he stuttered out words. The scars on his neck made it hard to talk sometimes, especially when he was nervous, they knew this. They had never made fun of him like this. Why the sudden change of pace? And whose Hyrule were they in? Wild thought they were in his but he recognized nothing. 

“Hylia you’re such a fucking coward Wild.” Warriors scoffed and rolled his eyes. “You can’t even handle a little teasing.” Now that one stung. Wild looked up to Warriors in many ways. They were both trained knights, and Warriors became a captain at such a young age. He had conquered armies, learned from his mistakes and moved on, and had saved his friends... 

“Hello? Wild? What the hell is wrong with you today?” Wind snapped up at him. That was certainly odd, Wind was very expressive, but it took a lot to get him to show his anger. Oh, Hylia, what had Wild done to piss off even Wind of all people? Why did he always have to mess everything up?

Wild felt his throat close up, and raised shaky hands to try to apologize once more. But the rest of the group only seemed to laugh and continue mocking him relentlessly for not even talking anymore. He couldn’t breathe. His vision was blurring and the trees were spinning around him. Distantly he could recognize that this was a panic attack, but all he felt now were the glares and mocking calls of the group around them. 

A hand poked Wild’s shoulder and he lashed out without even thinking, wildly shoving away what his muddled brain could barely recognize as Hyrule, who stumbled and landed on his back with a look of surprise that quickly turned to anger. Oh no.

“What the fuck, Wild?” Hyrule yelled in outrage, as Four helped him up, also glaring at the scarred teen. Hands grabbed his arms and Wild fought against them, kicking and bucking away from them. A sharp jab to his stomach had him lose all the breath in his body and collapse to the ground. He saw the strong build of Twilight through blurry eyes filled with tears.

“The fuck did you do that for you little freak?” Twilight was a lot bigger than Wild, and it was situations like this that reminded him of how intimidating he could be. “You do that shit to Hyrule after we let you travel with us? A mission from Hylia or not we should have left your broken body in your ruined Hyrule where it belongs. On second thought, your Zelda doesn’t deserve to put up with your fractured pieces. How about you just stay in this Hyrule and die? It’s what you deserve.”

“Twilight is right.” Sky stated, normally gentle voice stiff and emotionless, “I forged the Master Sword only for you to come by and disgrace its legacy.” Sky began to walk away, along with some others in the group. 

Panic filled Wild. They couldn’t leave him. He could do better! He would never talk again if that’s what they wanted. He didn’t want to be stuck in an unfamiliar Hyrule forever. Not again. He couldn't get left behind again. No matter how selfish it was, Wild wanted to stay with them. Wild needed to stay with them. He thrashed to get out of the hold he was in. He thought they were his family. Was a family supposed to treat you like this? Is this tough love? Wild didn’t know but he wanted to. He wanted to keep traveling with them. He thought he could hear voices calling his name, but Wild couldn’t breathe. Soon it all faded to black. 

~

The morning passed with smaller amounts of chatting than usual. Four was making simple omelets for the group and seemed to be arguing with himself in a quiet murmur over how long to cook the eggs for. Sky and Warriors were playing cards with Wind, who was definitely cheating in some way or another. Legend and Hyrule were content with just watching and seeing how long it took for him to get caught. And Twilight and Time were whispering and glancing at Wild, who had his head cradled in Twilight’s lap. 

Wild seemed to be twitching and murmuring in his sleep. His face looked troubled, fingers clenching and unclenching at Twilight’s pelt, breaths coming at an uneven pace. 

“Is he having trouble breathing again?” Legend called out from the tree he was leaning against. 

“Yes, but we don’t think it’s the sickness.” Time called back. He sounded gruff, but the rest of the group could hear concern lacing his voice. The group put away their cards and crowded around the three as close as they could without scaring Wild if he woke up. 

“‘M sr’y.” Wild let out in a pitiful moan. 

“Sorry for what cub?” Twilight leaned down and brushed Wild’s hair out of his face. But it only continued like that.

“‘M sr’y.”

“Don’ leav’.”

“I kno’ ‘m broken.”

“I’ll do better.”

“Promise.”

“‘M sr’y.”

“‘M sr’y.”

“‘M sr’y.”

The entire group could only feel the grip of horror wash in as they heard their little wild child begging not to be left behind. Wild has always had abandonment issues he tried to hide, though it was obvious to those who knew him. Nervous eyes always darted around camp whenever he went to sleep, worrying that when he woke up they would all be gone. It broke all of their hearts, and they all tried to help their own ways. 

Time by being a solid rock of advice and encouragement.

Twilight by giving him warm hugs when he could handle it.

Warriors by telling him stories, either of his epic tales or silly exploits in the taverns. 

Legend by teaching him of his many items (And letting him use them when no one else watching).

Hyrule by taking them exploring with no map.

Wind by teaching him sea shanties.

Sky by letting him sit near his napping place and simply exist in comfortable silence. 

Four by telling him jokes in the back of the group some days, which ranged from lighthearted and goofy to teasing and full of fire. 

All of them tried to show Wild that they were there and never leaving and giving him pieces of themselves for him to keep close. To hear him talk the way he was, broke every single one of them.

“Shh Cub it’s okay, you're okay, you’re safe. I’m right here.” Twilight lifted up Wild and cradled him to his chest. Wild started to struggle, hands lifting to clutch and scratch the scars on his neck and face, the way he did when he was having a panic attack. Out of pure experience, Four grabbed Wild’s hands as gently as he could and held them to his chest, exaggerating his breathing while hoping Wild would subconsciously follow it. Wild didn’t like to be restrained, but if they let him he would keep scratching until he bled. They sadly had a lot of individual experience with Wild's attacks. He would apologize and go silent every time, feeling like a burden, but that was getting slightly better as time went on. 

“Wild, wake up Cub it’s just a dream. Wild, c’mon buddy.” Time spoke as he rested his hand against Wild’s forehead to give him something else to anchor him. Wild was completely sobbing and delusional at this point. Repeating the phrases under his breath and struggling and thrashing out of their hold. He was apologizing to every single one of them by name in a slurred voice. 

“Wind get me a cloth soaked in cold water please.” Hyrule spoke, not taking his eyes off of Wild. Wind, although obviously hesitant to leave his friend’s side, dashed off without complaint. Meanwhile Twilight was still talking into Wild’s ear, desperately hoping that he could hear it through his nightmare. 

When Wind came back with the cloth, Hyrule began to wash Wild’s face without wringing it out. They needed to shock Wild awake, but Hyrule didn’t want to be as harsh as a slap or a bucket of water when they had other options on hand. Wild gasped and jolted awake, teary eyes looking all over the group, then back up to meet Twilight’s.

“Hey, buddy.” Twilight said softly. And with that, Wild once again started sobbing, still slightly delirious from his infection. 

“Don’t leave Twi. I know I’m broken but I’ll do better. I promise!” Wild dug deeper into Twilight’s chest as he began repeating the same things he had in his sleep.

“You are not broken.” Time said sternly. “Nothing about you or your adventure makes you broken.”

“Wild you’re one of the bravest people I know.” Wind stated quietly. Wind loved the older boy and their adventures together, he hated to see him suffering like this. He had suffered so much and Wind just wanted him to be happy. 

Wild continued to sob into Twilight’s chest, which was obviously only agitating his bruises and illness. Twilight continued shushing him and rubbing soothing circles into his back, but the sobs wouldn’t die down. Unfortunately, Twilight could tell where this was going. 

“Warriors! Bucket!” Twilight commanded. Warriors darted off to get the bucket Legend had brought out for Wild just in case extreme nausea came with his infection. Just in time, Warriors got the bucket under Wild’s chin. 

Wild began heaving and hacking all of the contents of his stomach into the bucket, which wasn’t much after not eating breakfast. Even after all of his dinner from last night had come up, his body continued spasming as Wild dry heaved.

Warriors winced, he knew how painful throwing up was, especially after there was nothing left. Warriors grabbed Wild’s hair, much of it out of his ponytail at this point, and held it away from his face as Twilight whispered calming words into Wild’s ear. 

Eventually, Wild’s body finally stopped, his dry heaving turning into small spasms and his sobs turning into hiccups. He kept apologizing under his breath for unknown reasons, though Time figured now it was for throwing up. 

Legend took the washcloth from Hyrule, who didn’t like being anywhere near throw up, and gently cleaned Wild’s face. Twilight went to lay Wild back down on his bedroll, but the teen whined and burrowed into Twilight’s chest once more, still wrapped in Twilight’s fur pelt. Time chuckled and discreetly gave Wind a look to take a pictograph. 

“We’ll have to talk to him about his dream when he’s more awake.” Sky stated sadly. The rest of the group didn’t want to mention how horrifying that had been for them, let alone how horrifying it must have been for Wild. 

“Yeah, I know.” Twilight looked down at his cub’s flushed face with tear tracks staining his cheeks. This was going to be a long day.


	5. Breathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild can't catch a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Chapter 5! I apologize for the irregularities with the paragraphs being indented. It happens when I upload it. I plan to fix the other chapters to match :). Hope you enjoy!

Wild remained tucked inside Twilight’s pelt all day. Twilight had moved out from under him when Wild was in a deep enough sleep to do so. Twilight hated to move him but that kid was a furnace at the moment and an overdose of body heat seemed to be the last thing he needed. Now all that could be seen of the spry boy were tufts of blond hair sticking out near the top of his bedroll. 

It was around lunchtime when some of the boys began to get restless. They usually wouldn’t stay at camp this long in the middle of the woods, but as Time had stated, Wild wasn’t fit to travel anywhere even if he was being carried by someone. He would hopefully be well enough to ride on someone’s back in the morning, but until then they were stuck. 

It was Warriors’ turn to watch Wild. After his panic attack a couple of hours earlier he had completely passed out, so the job had become a lot more smooth. Warriors was content to just read a book Four and lent him and check Wild’s temperature and breathing once in a while. He wasn’t really getting that much better, but he wasn’t getting worse either. Legend’s medicine had helped his breathing steady out for the most part so he didn’t sound like a fish out of water anymore. He was still quivering and his muscles still appeared to be spasming, which would undoubtedly make him sore in the long run, but he at least appeared in a deep sleep for now. 

“Hyrule is Wild really okay to be so curled up in those blankets?” Four asked, concerned that Wild’s fever would worsen. 

“I think it’s okay. Whoever is on watch just has to keep checking his temperature. If it gets noticeably worse then we need to cool him down a bit.” Hyrule responded with ease. He was really growing into his role in the group, Time thought with pride. Hyrule was one hell of a fighter, but he also had the talent and spirit of a healer.

“Warriors, you’ve been checking his temperature, right?” Legend questioned with a single eyebrow raised. There was a slight teasing lilt to his voice. He knew Warriors had to take care of his men in battle before.

“‘Course I have. Who do you take me for?” Warriors rolled his eyes.

“It was a fair question Warriors.” Wind giggled, only to be met with a book flying straight at him.

“Hey! Don’t throw my books!” Four shouted as a thud and a squawk was heard in the background. Time rolled his eye. These boys were getting quite restless, which was perfectly fair. Time didn’t know what they would do if Wild wasn’t at least a little better tomorrow. It wasn’t just unpleasant to camp in one place for this long, it was dangerous. Moving along helped the black blooded monsters keep further from them. That was another reason he had someone watch over Wild. If a monster came by the camp and saw a sick member on the outskirts of camp, alone, well… it was nature. Pick off the weakest of the pack. No way in hell was Time going to let that happen. 

It seemed all the chaos had roused Wild slightly from his sleep. Immediately the camp halted when Warriors heard a groan a couple of feet away from him.

“Hey buddy, how ya feeling?” Warriors asked with a smile.

“Wha’s goin’ on?” Wild slurred out, eyes barely peeking out from Twilight’s pelt. 

“Well you got yourself sick and took a pretty nasty fall, kiddo.” Warriors teased. Wild squinted his face in concentration for a second, like he heard Warriors but understood nothing of what was said to him, before muttering a small “m’kay”, and falling back asleep. The camp chuckled slightly at Wild’s acceptance. 

“What are we gonna do if he’s not any better tomorrow?” Wind asked, apparently having the same thoughts Time did. 

“We have to keep moving. It’s too dangerous to stay here for longer than tonight. If someone wouldn't mind carrying him for a while, we can at least move a little bit tomorrow.” Time had been planning it out in his head. He didn’t want to risk Wild’s health by moving him around too much, threatening his breathing once again. However he also didn’t want to put them all in danger by having them stay in this clearing for too long. Neither situation was ideal, but hopefully with Wild being carried he would be alright for a while. 

Really the ideal situation at the moment would be being transported to Lon Lon Ranch. There Wild could be doted on by Malon for as long as he needed. Time smiled at the idea of Malon being a complete mother hen when one of their boys were sick. Wild would undoubtedly be as red as a tomato when he wasn’t delusional anymore. Malon would just coo that he didn’t need to be embarrassed and continue nursing him back to health. Hylia, he loved that woman. No matter how fierce she could be with that fire he fell in love with, she could also be the kindest being in any Hyrule, in any timeline. If one of the boys ever got sick on the ranch, Time was sure that no matter if it was the oldest or the youngest, Malon would certainly baby every one of their boys until they got better. Time wondered when he and Malon and stopped thinking of the boys as just boys and when they thought of them as their boys. Their family to protect. Maybe they never were just boys, maybe it was the first time they ended up at Lon Lon Ranch when he watched her fall in love with every single one of them, like a bear seeing her cub for the first time. Either way, Time could feel when they were going to switch. He didn’t know when, or where they would end up, but he could feel the time running out (ha). They were not switching Hyrules anytime soon, so they had to make the best out of what they had in the moment. 

Multiple voices blended together, offering to carry Wild, including Wind, who was multiple inches shorter than the hero he was offering to carry. Time held back a smirk.

“We can take turns carrying him.” Twilight planned from beside Time. “But we can’t jostle him too much. He doesn’t have broken ribs anymore but we don’t want his breathing to go back to how it was when he first fell down a tree. We also don’t want him puking all the way through the forest.” Some light laughs ripped through the group. Time threw a hefty clap to Twilight’s shoulder, proud of him for taking charge. 

“Twilight is right. Tomorrow we’ll switch off by the hour, oldest to youngest of those capable of carrying him without moving him too much.” Time finalized. He knew Wind wouldn’t be happy if the topic of him not carrying Wild came up, so he hoped they found a better place to sleep before they got to that point. 

“How is he, Warriors?” Twilight asked the captain.

“Kid’s okay so far. His temperature hasn’t increased from what I can tell.” Warriors reported, resting a hand on Wild’s forehead to affirm his point. “Looks miserable though, he’s shivering like he’s buried in snow.” Warriors frowned in thought.

“I feel bad, but we can’t let him get too warm.” Hyrule warned. 

“I know buddy. I just feel bad for the kid. He has to be freezing.” Warriors confirmed. 

“Yeah, but once his fever passes a bit he can be buried under as many blankets as he wants.” Hyrule smiled optimistically. 

“I think if you gave him the choice that would be every blanket we own.” Legend joked. He wasn’t wrong. Wild packed light, but when given the option, he felt the weight of heavy blankets to be comforting. It was odd considering how much he hated being restrained, but whatever brought him comfort they would try to achieve it.

The light atmosphere of the camp was interrupted when, without any warning, as if the universe had read every worry and bad thought Time had, a group of moblins crashed through the trees. 

“Warriors, watch Wild!” Time yelled instantly, although he didn’t really need to. Warriors instantly leapt to his feet and unsheathed his sword above Wild. The moblins in Wild’s Hyrule were strong and towering, but also lanky. They would almost be cute if they weren’t currently attacking them with one member already down. Thankfully there were only three. Wind, Legend, and Hyrule attacked the one leading the attack. Sky and Four had rushed over to assist Warriors in protecting Wild against the second. Finally, Time and Twilight were working on the third. 

The battle was going fine. No one seemed to be injured so far, everyone was expertly ducking under clubs and slashing at weak points. A yell from Warriors changed that. Time didn’t know how it happened, he doubted Warriors did either. One moment the second Moblin was being overpowered by the combination of Sky, Hyrule, and Warriors, the next, it was looming over the boy wrapped in his bedroll who was completely unaware of what was happening. It happened so fast and yet so painfully slow. The moblin wildly kicked its foot at the heap on the ground, sending Wild flying a good ten feet away, causing his right side to smash into a tree. 

With a short and airy scream from Wild, Warriors only saw red. Slamming his shield into the back of the smug Moblin, he quickly hacked away until only a puff of black smoke remained, then nothing. 

Without a second thought, everyone bolted over to Wild. Warriors got there first, sliding to Wild’s side and lifting the hem of his shirt. When Time got there, all he saw was horrifying shades of blacks, greens, and blues on the right side of Wild’s already bruised chest. There was also red seeping out of deep scrapes the bark cut into his skin. 

If Wild’s breathing was bad when he first fell, it didn’t even compare to what it was now. He was coughing, hacking, gasping, and wheezing. Anything just to get air into his lungs. His hands were twitching and grabbing onto the grass below, and Time imagined if he could move properly he would be grasping at his throat.

“Wild I am so sorry he was just gone before I knew it. Wild, kiddo, can you hear me?” Warriors was keeping his voice as calm as possible but on the inside he was being crushed by guilt and concern. 

Hyrule kneeled next to Wild’s shuddering form along with Twilight, while Warriors moved to be just above Wild's head. 

“Twilight, can you see if you can calm him down at all? The shock he’s probably feeling isn’t helping him breathe.” Hyrule was already feeling Wild’s ribs as he spoke, which only increased Wild’s pain and his struggle to breathe. 

“Please.” Wild gasped out in between coughing and hacking, “Stop”. Twilight leaned down and took one of Wild’s hands. 

“Don’t worry Cub, it’ll stop soon. I’m sorry, but it’ll be okay. You’re okay, Just keep breathing. In and out.” As Twilight repeated similar phrases and placed Wild’s hand on his chest, Warriors had taken to playing with Wild’s hair to hopefully give him some form of comfort. 

“Four, we’re gonna need a potion. Please run and get one. Legend, if you have any more of that salve to spare, Wild will probably need it.” Time voiced. Legend and Four simply nodded and took off to their bags. 

“What can I do, Time?” Wind asked in a flurry. Time felt a rush of affection for the boy’s eagerness to help his friend in any way possible.

“I don’t know yet. Ask Hyrule when he’s done checking out Wild's ribs.” Time put on a reassuring smile for Wind, which the boy returned. 

Wild’s breathing had calmed down enough that Time wasn’t worried he would pass out anymore from hyperventilating. It seemed physical contact had helped his mind know the threat was gone for now. For now, were the words that troubled Time. He thought that they could go another night here, but if these monsters had tracked them, more were sure to come. His thoughts were interrupted by Legend and Four returning just in time for Hyrule to tell his findings. 

“We’re lucky he doesn’t have a punctured lung.” Hyrule stated solemnly over Wild's wheezing and whimpers of pain. “He has broken ribs again, and they were already weak the first time. A potion should heal them enough that he won’t be in immediate danger, but they’ll be more fragile. The infection is already making his healing hard, breaking his ribs a second time in the same day is defiantly not good.” Hyrule finished, looking over at Warriors, who was guiltily spinning a strand of Wild’s hair on his finger. “It’s not your fault, Warriors. They had whatever the rest of the monsters do now. There’s no telling how much their speed and strength increased. It was just a bad situation. Without you he would have been hurt more, or worse.” Warriors simply nodded, but he felt a bit better at Hyrule’s words. 

Twilight helped Wild drink the potion Four had brought, and Legend applied the salve to Wild’s chest. Fortunately, they didn’t have to worry about staining Wild’s tunic anymore with Sky’s old shirt on him, so Legend could put the salve on without having to lift Wild’s arms. After a few minutes, the cub’s breathing evened out well enough. It still wasn’t great, but he was at least getting air into his lungs. 

“Alright gentleman.” Time got the attention of the rest of the group. “Even if it’s just a mile or two, we need to get out of here. More monsters are sure to come and they may be more powerful and more in numbers. Wild can rest a little while the rest of us pack up. Wind, watch Wild please, I’ll pack your things. Twilight, pack Wild’s bag and bedroll. We’re leaving. Now.”


	6. Travel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group has to move to a new camp.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi all! Thank you for all the support on my first story. I'm not sure how long this will be, but it's very fun to write. Warning: Vomiting  
> Tumblr: queenof-literature

The entire camp was almost packed up within twenty minutes. Considering they had been here longer than usual, Time was impressed. It only became more obvious how worried they were for Wild. While impressive, it unfortunately gave Wild very little time to rest his chest before they had to move him. Time glanced over at Wind, who had taken to braiding Wild’s hair in some places to pass time and sooth him. Even from where he was helping Twilight pack Epona, Time could see the stutters of Wild’s chest. The cub was in a lot of pain, and his brothers could do almost nothing to alleviate it. 

“Time?” Wind called out hesitantly once he noticed him looking over that way. Twilight and Time both trekked over to their two youngest. “He’s mumbling again and slurring his words and it’s making his breathing worse.” Wind stated with an uncharacteristic grim look upon his young features. Time and Twilight had to kneel down to hear it, but once again Wild was murmuring apologies to all of them. Hylia, just what was Wild dreaming about?

“Hey, Cub, wake for me please?” Twilight said softly as he rubbed a gentle hand on Wild’s chest to try and sooth the pain. At the contact, Wild’s eyes shot open as he tried to jump to his feet. He barely even got his shoulders off the ground before he became nauseous and his stomach began to spasm from the quick movement. Time reacted quickly and rolled him to the side and held him up slightly. Just this little movement caused absolute fire to race up Wild’s sides, but any sound he would have made were interrupted by his stomach beginning to dry heave. 

Time held onto Wild as he threw up nothing but bile and spit onto the ground beneath him, tears coming steady from his eyes in agony, his chest caught in an endless mix of dry heaving, coughs, and choked sobs. Time sighed. Even while sick, Wild was holding back and trying to act strong. 

“Let it out, Cub it’s alright. Happens to the best of us.” Time whispered in his ear while Twilight rubbed his back and Wind ran his hands through his hair. What the rest of the group called Time’s “Dad Instincts” were going insane. Is this what having children felt like? Wanting to take all their pain away, even taking it upon himself if necessary? Wanting to shove all these boys away where the world could never hurt them? But also being proud when they looked the world in the face and bit back? Is that what it is? It was a scary feeling, but not one Time would trade away. He loved all these boys, and one of the youngest was suffering, something Time wouldn’t stand for. Finally, Wild’s heaves calmed down. 

“There you go, buddy. You’re okay.” Time soothed as he laid Wild on his back once more away from the bile. Wild was muttering random words and apologies in between deep gasps for air, many of which made their hearts clench. Wild still seemed trapped in delusions none of them could pull him out of. 

“Time we can’t move him like this.” Twilight stated worriedly. 

“We don’t have a choice, Pup.” Time uttered. “More monsters will follow the last ones and we’re vulnerable here. We didn’t choose the most ideal camping spot. Even if we get some distance between us and here, that’s better than nothing.” Time felt eyes on his back. Looking up towards camp he saw all the boys packed and ready to go, concern clear as day in their faces. Even Legend was struggling to keep his face neutral. 

“But what if we run into a monster? Or for that matter, a Guardian? Whoever is carrying him can’t just toss him down and fight! Hyrule said that his ribs are fragile now, what happens if he gets hurt again?” Twilight raised some very good points. Time knew he wasn’t being stubborn and he wasn’t trying to question Time, he was just worried for his cub.

“I know Twilight.” Time sighed. “There’s not a perfect solution here, But you know we’ll all step forward to protect Wild if that happens. But we can’t stay here.” Time wrapped an arm around his protege. 

“I know, Time. I’m sorry. I just don’t want him to get hurt again.” Twilight leaned into his embrace. 

“None of us do, Pup. We’ll figure it out.” Time comforted. Twilight nodded, looking slightly less troubled. Time squeezed his shoulder and and pulled away, turning to address the rest of the boys. “Are you all ready to head out?” Time called, receiving words of affirmation. Time nodded and beat Twilight into reaching for Wild. “Oldest to youngest remember.” Time teased when Twilight turned a small glare his way.

Time thought for a moment about the best way to go about this. An over the shoulder carry was absolutely out of the question, and really so was carrying Wild on his back. That would put a lot of unnecessary pressure on Wild’s chest that it couldn’t really handle at the moment, so he settled for a bridal carry. If Wild were awake and coherent, he would have fought tooth and nail against this, but it was the best option they had. Time reached down to pick Wild up, only to be met with foggy blue eyes.

“Hey kiddo, I need to pick you up. It’s gonna hurt a little bit but it’ll be over soon okay?” Time placed a hand on Wild’s cheek to get the kid to look at him.

“Wh-” Wild was interrupted by his lungs spasming as his ribs screamed in protest.

“Shh. Don’t talk, just focus on breathing.” Time soothed. He gently put his arms under Wild’s knees and shoulders, before standing up as steady as possible. The muffled scream Wild let out hurt Time more than anything so far. It was his decision that put that scream in Wild’s throat. Twilight might be right, but Time had given his orders. Now he just had to hope they were the right ones. Wild’s breaths once again grew shallow and erratic, shaking hands slowly lifting to bunch into Time’s tunic to ground himself. “It’s alright.” Time pressed his forehead against Wild’s. He didn’t understand why the boys jokingly referred to him as the group’s father. He was so awkward in comforting these kids it was just plain sad. Thankfully, Wild’s breathing evened out enough to move him further. Carrying someone bridal style was more difficult than on one’s back, but Time could handle it fine. He would have to pass him to Twilight at some point during the journey though, or the pup would pitch a fit. 

“Alright, let’s head out.” Time announced. Time started walking passed Epona in the direction they had chosen. Epona huffed and sniffed Wild’s hair once Time got closer, clearly expecting the injured hero to be put upon her back with Twilight, even with the load she was already carrying. Time smiled. Just like his Epona. “No girl, I’m carrying him for now. He’s not well enough to ride.” Time nuzzled his head slightly into Epona’s mane since he had no free hands. Epona huffed again and continued sniffing Wild’s hair. Looking down, Time noticed a tiny smile on Wild’s troubled face, hands twitching slightly like they wanted to reach out and sooth her. It seemed even while unconcious Wild tried to ‘spoil her rotten’ according to Twilight. 

The group decided to move upwind in order to be tracked by less monsters. They had absolutely no idea where they were in Wild’s Hyrule, and he wasn’t coherent enough to ask. It couldn’t be anywhere near the middle, they didn’t see Hyrule Castle, but there also weren’t any large landmarks like a lot of mountains or the trees in the place Wild had called Akkala. Wild’s Hyrule was massive, and they had no idea if there was a stable anywhere near here and none of them could work the slate properly to check. Overall, it was a mess. 

Four looked at Wild in Time’s arms and winced slightly at the four loud voices within his mind at that moment. Vio hadn’t stopped making suggestions about how to help the boy, suggestions they had already tried. Blue was yelling for the murder of all Moblins. Red was voicing his concerns whenever Wild expressed any pain at all. And Green was trying to calm all of them down while also yelling at Four to do something whenever Wild whimpered slurred out apologies. Four appreciated them trying to help, but dear Hylia they were going to give him a headache! He looked again at Wild and sighed quietly. Even after Hyrule’s words, he still blamed himself slightly that he didn’t notice Wild’s wound sooner. He knew it was silly, Blue told him that, but it still wouldn’t leave his head. He was known for being observant, but he didn’t see this coming. Blue, Vio, Red and Green were right though. He couldn’t do anything about it before, but he could help now. 

Legend was pissed. They were lost, they were antsy, and Wild was hurt. Time was carrying Wild in the center of the group, the other seven forming around them in case a monster popped out of the trees. As stupid as it was, Legend wanted to be the one carrying Wild, he wanted psysical proof that he was there and still breathing, not like Marin… but no. Twilight had to come up with the stupid rule that it was oldest to youngest, and he wasn’t old like Time or freakishly strong like Twilight. Legend sighed and looked at Wild again, then turned to see Hyrule’s dumb smirking face. ‘You’re soft’ the look screamed, and Legend wanted to hit him. 

~

“My turn Old Man.” Twilight smirked. They had been traveling for around an hour now, which Twilight deemed enough to take his turn. Time rolled his eye at his proteges’ overprotective tendencies. 

“I’m fine for a bit longer, Pup.” Time sighed. 

“Whatever Old Man, you keep carrying him and your back is gonna go out. Let the freakishly strong one carry him.” Legend sassed. Twilight sent him a look that was a mixture of insulted and grateful. Legend wasn’t completely kidding. Time shouldn’t be forced to carry Wild the entire way if they had other options. 

“Fine. We’ll take a small break here and continue shortly.” Time stated, making his way off the beaten path the heroes had found themselves on. In Wild’s Hyrule, paths didn’t ward off monsters completely, but they were less likely to show up than in the middle of the woods. The group sat slightly off the path in the shade of the trees above. While they took a breather, Time tried to transfer Wild into Twilight’s arms. The boy simply whined and burrowed into Time. Sky laughed lightly. Sky knew that Wild used to be intimidated by Time, and probably still was. If he could see himself he would be mortified. That thought made Sky frown slightly. Wild had no reason to be embarrassed for seeking basic human comfort after so many years alone. Sky had been trying to teach him that, and he was improving at least. 

“Damn, Cub. I’m offended you would choose Time over me. Your own mentor!” Twilight stated dramatically, causing the other Links to laugh. Wild seemed to relax his hold on Time when he heard Twilight’s voice, allowing Time to gently transfer Wild into the younger’s arms as Wild groaned and winced. He did better than expected on the journey, only gasping a couple of times when the road got a little bumpy. Time assumed it was out of pure exhaustion he didn’t react much on the road, but he’d take anything right now. 

“Alright. Let’s get going again.” Time commanded. The others rose and gathered around Twilight this time, each of them looking for a place to camp along the way. Another hour later and Wild seemed to be getting slightly restless in Twilight’s arms, as much as he could without being able to move around. His hands were clenching and unclenching Twilight’s tunic and he was reacting more often to smaller bumps on the road. Hopefully they would find a place soon so Wild could lay down. 

“What about there?” Hyrule called, pointing to a small rock wall with an overhang, surrounded by trees. Time mulled it over. They had moved relatively far, even in Wild’s massive Hyrule. And the overhang provided shelter they didn’t have before and a side that wouldn’t need to be watched as much tonight.

“That seems like it’ll work. Nice one Hyrule.” Time saw Hyrule’s eyes light up at the praise. Wild and Hyrule were similar in that way. Both wary of opening up, but beaming under praise and gentle touches. Most likely because they had been the loneliest, Time thought sadly.

The group meandered over there, excited to finally be at their destination, but not wanting to leave Wild unguarded. Once they got closer, they could hear a small amount of water, causing the group to relax even more. Now Twilight wouldn’t need to go hunting for water for Epona and they could stock up some bottles for the next few days. Four grabbed Wild’s bedroll off of Epona as soon as they stopped, giving her a small pat as he passed which she seemed to appreciate. Four carefully laid Wild’s bedroll near the back of the overhang, not enough for it to radiate cold off the hard stone, but also far enough away from the fire for the fever he was still sporting.

Twilight brought Wild over and carefully laid him down. Once he moved away though, Wild freaked out. “T-Tw-” Wild’s words bubbled in his throat before dying off in a loud wheeze. 

“Put your pelt over him again.” Four suggested. Twilight rushed to unhook it and placed it over his cub. Wild calmed down slightly, and Four internally thanked Green for the idea. 

“Who knew you’d get so clingy when sick.” Twilight chuckled while soothing some of Wild’s stubborn tufts of hair sticking up. There was no malice in his words however. It felt nice to be needed. Besides, Wild could probably shoot Twilight through the leg with an ice arrow and he would look into those damn bright blue eyes and forgive him instantly. Not that there was anything to forgive him for at the moment. Wild was never the burden he thought he was, and never would be. 

“You want some more salve?” Legend called from where he was helping unpack Epona.

“Nah, it’s not awful right now. We’ll save it.” Twilight called back. Legend simply nodded and went back to work. Twilight looked at Time, one of their silent conversations passing between them. ‘You need help?’ Twilight’s expression asked. ‘No. Stay with your cub.’ Twilight nodded and looked back down at Wild. Stay with his cub he would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time: I'm not a dad  
> Time: *Continues to dad*


	7. Deep Breath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wild gives the boys a scare.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello all! I apologize for my absence, I have been very sick and it's been a rough week. I will work on requests and my series as soon as possible :). I hope you enjoy Chapter 7!  
> Tumblr: queenof-literature Requests are Open
> 
> Warning: Vomit and choking. And some hintings towards abuse at the beginning. It isn't explicit but if this bothers you please skip the dream at the beginning.

“Again!” The faceless knight barked. Link was doing fine, his technique was almost perfect. But fine would not defeat Calamity. Fine would not protect the royal court. Fine would not protect the families of Hyrule. 

The 13 year old boy heaved the Master Sword into his defensive position, his skinny arms having at least bulked up and gained minimal amounts of muscle since pulling the sword from its pedestal a year ago. The black haired knight launched towards him, he blocked it easily. He had taken on a Lynel by himself at the age of 10. The knight himself posed no threat, it was the constant schedule that proved to be daunting. Hours of practice everyday, only enough food to keep him fit, never enough to spoil him and never enough to starve him. 

The faceless man never stopped his attacks, not relenting when Link’s arms would weaken slightly from exertion. If he got hurt it was a lesson, if he didn’t, it was a small victory. All the knights watched him, empty husks where eyes used to be judging his every move. If a hair was out of place they would call out to stop. Link parried above his head, hands one inch part and not two. He cringed inside thinking of how they would yell at him, but they surprisingly didn’t halt the fight. Maybe they didn’t notice? No. They noticed everything. They were giving him a chance to redeem himself. He didn't know how they came to this decision silently. Perhaps telepathy? Shit. His foot in his side parry was too far forward. 

“Halt!” The lead knight called. The instinctual reaction to look for a knight with dirty blond hair confused him, but he pushed the thought down. As the man approached, Link kneeled down, holding the blade in front of him. “Link.” The head knight addressed in a tone filled with venom, “I was willing to forgive your first mistake. But a second one in that amount of time is absolutely unacceptable.” The head knight approached Link, and he stubbornly resisted the urge to shrink down.

“Sir, perhaps the boy is tired.” A faceless knight with a mane of bright autumn hair spoke up from the head knight’s left. Something in Link was soothed by the man’s presence, screaming a familiar warmth within these cold walls. 

“The boy has a destiny far greater than our own. He does not have the right to be tired anymore.” The head knight’s tone had changed from complete venom to guilt coated in malice. It still made Link’s spine crawl. 

“Yes. The boy is still too wild. He needs discipline.” A deep part of Link’s soul sung at the word ‘wild’. It was a puzzle piece that snapped into place, and it finally dawned on him how wrong this place felt. Link tuned the knights out, something he would undoubtedly regret later. No matter, they always talked for him anyway. 

Everything about this place seemed incorrect, and he had no idea where he even was. The bricks themselves seemed to be out of place. Why was he here? Why was he listening to these stuck up assholes?

‘Because you know what happens when you don’t.’ A small voice whispered to him. It sounded like him, yet he didn’t even recognize it. 

The blond haired knight. Where was he? Why wasn’t he here? He should be here! Something in Link cried out in outrage and anguish at the missing knight. Where was he? 

He should be here.

~

Wild was mumbling in his sleep again. Time had said that he would have hallucinations, but Hyrule didn’t know it would be this bad. Wild constantly had a look of fear and pain on his face now, and Hyrule rarely saw that look on his best friend's face. Hyrule just continued rubbing his brother’s chest lightly to try and soothe the straining muscles, and hopefully Wild’s mind. He knew from personal experience how being touch starved felt. Another reason why Wild and him bonded, he supposed. Hyrule got used to being touched quicker than Wild since he didn’t necessarily fear it the way his best friend did. It did take him a while to get used to it. Legend had helped immensely, although Hyrule never dared bring that up in the older boy’s presence. He would just deny it and change the subject.

Hyrule had learned that it was okay to want physical comfort along with his friend. Wild was certainly more stubborn about admitting it though, Hyrule almost chuckled to himself. Wild couldn’t hide it from Hyrule though. 

The nights that Hyrule and Wild woke up entangled and content, cuddled up to each other, wasn’t as coincidental as the others thought. Sure sometimes Hyrule found himself naturally gravitating towards others in his sleep (Not to the point of trapping them like Wind or Sky), but Hyrule knew when Wild wanted warmth and was too scared to speak up. He knew how to read him. Hyrule would just happen to set his bedroll next to Wild, and would happen to gravitate towards him, and would happen to latch onto him causing Wild to latch back.

Back to the matter at hand, Hyrule really hoped Wild would wake up soon. He didn’t need him to be completely coherent, just enough to measure how Wild’s ribs were healing. He had been waiting almost an hour to test Wild’s breathing, but also didn’t really want to wake Wild. He wanted him to get sleep before the infection caused restlessness combined with exhaustion to create an overall nightmare for him. Hyrule sighed for what felt like the millionth time today. No one was talking about it, but this infection had festered for too long, and the recovery would be long and hard. Wild was going to be out of commission for a while and as much as they wish they could just let him rest for as long as he needed, they had a job from Hylia. Who knew when they would switch worlds, or run into a pack of bloodthirsty monsters, or find another clue. Hyrule supposed that would just need to be taken one step at a time.

Wild continued to mumble, growing increasingly restless. Hyrule lightly rubbed his thumb across Wild’s cheek, something Time did when one of them was injured or under the weather. Perhaps he would finally wake up a little? Blurry eyes opened a small amount. Barely enough for Hyrule to see the vast blue Wild’s eyes always held. 

“Hey, Wild.” Hyrule greeted, making sure to put a bit of cheer in his voice to make his friend more at ease. Wild simply let out a confused hum. It seemed his throat was either too sore to talk through, or he was still too out of it to focus on pushing the words past his tongue. Most likely both. Wild’s eyes began to close once more. “Uh uh buddy. Stay awake for me little longer.” Hyrule patted Wild’s cheek, this time putting slightly more pressure. He pushed down the guilt of keeping his friend from the sleep he desperately needed. He needed to check his consciousness and breathing while he had the chance. 

“Is everyone alright over here?” Hyrule looked up to see Sky walking towards them. The rest of the boys were down near the river, Hyrule insisting that they all go wash off some or relax for a little while. He would take his turn later when someone could stay behind with Wild, most likely Twilight or Warriors considering the others had to practically drag them away, telling them that Hyrule would shout if they were needed. 

“Yeah Sky. Wild just woke up, I need to check his breathing.” Hyrule responded simply. He would ask Sky why he left the others later, probably just tired of the other restless heroes. Sky knelt next to Wild by the boys head, running his hands through Wild’s unkempt hair. 

“What is it with you all and Wild’s hair.” Hyrule laughed, running his hands across Wild’s ribs while he spoke, ensuring he stayed awake. Now that he was awake, his breathing had picked up again, ribs still bruised and skin on his chest swollen from both the landing that morning, and the tree he was launched into that afternoon. Poor Wild had had an awful day, and the sun was only just starting to disappear behind the distant mountains. 

“Oh please, you do it too. It’s a habit at this point. You know how often he gets sticks in it.” Sky rolled his eyes fondly. Hyrule simply hummed and nodded.

“Hey Wild.” Hyrule’s call was met with distant eyes flickering slightly in his direction. His fever had really fogged his brain, dull irises never meeting anything specific. Hyrule doubted he would be able to hear a command, let alone perform it, but it was worth a try at least. “Can you take a deep breath for me?” Hyrule asked gently, placing his hand lightly on Wild’s chest. Bruised and weak ribs were tricky, and there was little Hyrule could do for them besides continue to give him salves and medicine. Potions, contrary to popular belief, were not a cure all. It healed what would kill and what was broken or cut, but internal wounds were different. None of Wild’s current wounds were deadly now that he was healed to the best of Hyrule's ability, but they would become deadly if Hyrule didn’t ensure he was healing properly on his own. 

Wild continued to stare blankly ahead, eyes flickering slightly. 

“Here. Keep trying that.” Sky stated, moving to Wild’s other side. The gentle man grabbed one of Wild’s still hands and pressed it to his own chest, inhaling deeply. Hyrule understood now, try to get Wild to subconsciously copy. Sky and Hyrule were obviously sources of physical comfort, so Wild might do it if he thought it would bring more comfort to himself. Hyrule nodded to Sky with a small smile and continued to coax a breath deep enough. Wild’s eyes eventually met Hyrule’s. Although they were more staring through him than at him, Hyrule gained a little hope. 

“Wild? Link? I need you to take a big breath for me?” Hyrule patted his cheek again. Wild finally complied to the best of his ability, still not fully there, but Hyrule was sure Sky was helping the boy understand what was being asked of him. 

Wild took a large, shuddering breath only half of what was a normal deep breath for the healthy heroes. Hyrule winced at the creaking he felt within his chest, that wasn’t very good. As Wild exhaled this chest spasmed without warning, sending him into a coughing fit almost as rough and loud as when he hit the tree. Hyrule and Sky both tried to sooth him in anyway they could, but the boy’s body wouldn’t slow down. Wild’s eyes widened, weak and sore arms trying to reach and clutch his chest, throat, anything to ground himself. Spit and bile caught at the back of his throat, the sensation of choking only increased. 

“Shit!” Hyrule cursed. “Roll him over!” Hyrule tried to push down his panic at seeing his best friend choking just beneath him. Sky nodded swiftly and began to push Wild on his side to face Hyrule. Wild let out a strangled wail in pain at the movement, hands and legs curled into himself to form a protective ball around his ribs, only shrinking his airway and increasing the panicked heaves even more. Bile and acid ran out of his gasping mouth, his entire body twitching with joints locking and unlocking rapidly. Hyrule flinched back for a second in slight panic and disgust, (he loathed the very idea of vomit!), but quickly snapped out of it to help his best friend. Sky watched with a pained expression, rubbing soothing circles on Wild’s back while Hyrule tried to uncurl Wild gently from the ball he had formed out of his limbs. 

“What happened?" Wind called. Hyrule’s eyes flicked away from his friend for a moment, noticing the other heroes walking briskly back to camp. Some with wet hair or pants cuffed above their legs. 

“He's choking! I need a potion, I don’t like the way his ribs feel at all either!'' Hyrule didn’t mention that the ball he was trying to coax Wild out of might have made his ribs worse with how tight he had tucked in on himself. Four ran off to get a potion while Twilight and Wind ran over to where Wild lay, still struggling desperately to simply breathe. Acid and bile still coming from his mouth, Wild obviously struggling to both keep it at bay and get it out to free his throat from the burning pain, causing it to get stuck and continue to choke him. 

“Warriors, can you please go get more water? We don’t have much clean water left for him.” Warriors simply nodded and dashed to his bag, they would clean more water from the river later. “I need help getting him laid back out, he’s making it worse.” Hyrule finished his orders in a strong voice he would be proud of later. For now they had to calm Wild down. Legend sat on the same side as Hyrule further down near Wild’s legs, attempting to gently pry his legs away from his chest, the same Hyrule was doing with his arms. Wild thankfully ran out of bile to throw up, but only fought harder against them. 

“Pup, try Wolfie. He’s really out of it, he might respond better to animals.” Time reasoned. Twilight’s wide eyes darted towards his mentor, before he was engulfed in black magic. The rest of the boys paused for a moment, it was still weird to see him transform. Wolfie emerged, trotting around Time near Wild’s head and placed himself between Legend and Hyrule, pressing his nose between Wild’s hands. Wild’s arms seemed to lose some tension, the effect of having his wolf friend near him almost instantaneous. Legend was finally able to pull his legs out without causing more harm, along with Hyrule and Wild’s arms. Wild’s hands weakly buried themselves into Wolfie’s fur, breathing still rough and loud, but calming down significantly. Hyrule looked up to Time receiving water from Warriors, who sat down near Four and Wind who were keeping their distance from Wild to not overwhelm him. Hyrule had no idea when they got back, but he was a little distracted. Time pulled Wild away from the portion of his bedroll wet with bile, nose wrinkled slightly in disgust now that the situation wasn’t as dire, which seemed to be a feeling reflected by many.  
Legend and Hyrule rolled Wild on his back once more, doing their best to ignore the pained increase of breathing. Time took one of the wet cloths they kept near Wild and cleaned the side of his face. 

“While I give him some water to cool his throat, can you boys wrangle his bedroll and go wash it in the river?” Time asked softly, careful not to disturb the boy he was pulling gently into his lap, shushing him softly when Wild gasped in pain at the sharp flare that went through his side. There was a blend of ‘okays’ and ‘no problems’. Hyrule and Legend lifted him off the blankets as little as possible while Four and Sky quickly pulled the bedroll from under him along with the blankets that had fallen off. Wild rasped out something no one could understand at the loss of warmth before Time shushed him and coaxed him into drinking some water. Wild’s body relaxed a little further at the cool liquid soothing his acid-burned throat. Legend, Hylia bless his soul, volunteered to wash the bedroll. Time watched in amusement as the other boys thanked him profusely, Hyrule especially. Legend simply shrugged. Sure it was gross, but he had faced far more disgusting things in temples and dungeons than some poor kid’s throw up. 

Wolfie snuggled further into Wild’s side as Time fed the boy another potion. His breathing certainly wasn’t good, but it was at least better than when they approached from the river. Hyrule sighed in relief. He wasn’t about to test his breathing again, but he could tell the potion had helped his ribs. Hyrule leaned forward and felt his forehead, frowning slightly at the temperature. 

“What’s wrong?” Time noticed Hyrule’s frown instantly.

“He’s too hot again, it’s increased a little.” Hyrule bit back his frantic thoughts. “Let’s get a cloth on his forehead again.” They had let Wild have a break from the cold wet cloth they had on his head earlier, allowing the shivering boy to curl into his blankets once his fever was a little better. With a jolt, Hyrule felt guilt rise as he realized a partial culprit for Wild’s increasing temperature. 

“I’m sorry Wolfie, but you gotta turn back. Your fur is too hot for him right now.” Hyrule looked into Twilight’s eyes, bright blue even in wolf form, and watched an array of emotions flickering across them. First surprise, then anger, then finally resigned sadness. Wolfie stood slowly, gently shaking off Wild’s hands. Wild frowned deeply and whimpered at the loss of comfort. Wolfie whined guiltily at upsetting his protege before trudging away, sitting next to Time after transforming back. Time pat Twilight’s shoulder, silently telling him it was for Wild’s own well being. Twilight just sighed and grabbed one of Wild’s searching hands, feeling a little better when his cub relaxed once more, even if it was only a little bit. Twilight was glad he could provide comfort as his Hylian self now, and not just his wolf form like when Wild first joined. 

After everything had calmed slightly, the rest of the boys gathered in a loose circle around their campsite to bus themselves with activities and keep their minds occupied. Legend was still off washing Wild’s bedroll and blankets, so the rest tried to put their worrying minds at ease with distractions. Time, Twilight, and Hyrule were taking care of Wild in that moment, so there wasn’t much they could do. Walking along the river had at least helped to calm their restlessness from earlier that morning. 

Four was currently talking with Wind about random subjects that came up. Warriors was drawing and writing in that book of his. Sky approached behind Hyrule, pointing at him and silently asking Time if he could drag the hero away. At Time’s nod, Sky tapped Hyrule’s shoulder and gestured for him to come with him. 

“What, Sky?” Sky ignored the slight amount of irritation in Hyrule’s voice. Hyrule didn’t mean it, he was just concerned for his brother. 

“He has Twilight and Time right now. You’ve been watching him all evening and you promised you would take a break later. You’ve already done so much, Hyrule. Wild would want you to take care of yourself. You told Twilight that literally this morning.” Sky placed his shoulder on Hyrules shoulder. Hyrule sighed and stood to walk with Sky. 

“Sorry Sky.” Hyrule’s voice was full of guilt. “I’m just worried for him, especially after I checked on him.” Sky could hear Hyrule’s anger towards himself. 

“It wasn’t your fault, Hyrule.” Sky said kindly. Hyrule was aware it wasn’t his fault, it just felt nice to be reassured sometimes. “It was lucky you noticed how bad his ribs were getting again.” Sky steered him away from Wild.

“I don’t want to leave camp.” Hyrule rushed out. Sky’s eyebrows raised in surprise. Wild must have really scared Hyrule if the traveler himself didn’t want to go explore at that moment. 

“Okay. Then how about I teach you some carving?” Sky’s smile softened even more when he saw the bright look in the younger’s eyes. He loved how curious all the Links were at the prospect of new skills, especially the younger Links. 

“Really?” Hyrule asked. Sky nodded and guided him over to the small portion of camp he had claimed as his own. It would most likely be invaded by someone using him as a pillow later, but he didn’t mind one bit. His fellow Links always had trouble sleeping for a variety of reasons, so anything he could do to help was always fine by him. 

Hyrule and Sky were both happy to simply sit together with Sky carefully guiding Hyrule through the process of carving a simple rod with vines. It was what Sky had started with so it seemed the most appropriate. He had learned that Hyrule picked up concepts of art very quickly when he taught him how to paint on an old sword. Besides Sky having to gently guide Hyrule’s hands at some of the more intricate parts, he was doing amazing. Especially since he was just learning. 

“Alright his bedroll and blankets are clean but they have to dry. It’ll probably take all night since we don’t exactly have the sun anymore.” Legend’s voice got louder as he marched into camp with a sopping wet pile held out in front of him. He made his way over to a tree with low branches to hang Wild’s things and spread them out. 

“He can have the person’s bedroll who has first watch? Then the person who has first watch can take the next available bedroll from second watch and so on and so forth?” Twilight asked the rest of the group. 

“Sounds good to me. We had to do that with injured soldiers in the woods before. We can set a blanket down if anyone is worried about him getting sick again.” Warriors confirmed Twilight’s idea. Twilight wouldn’t admit he was grateful for the other boy speaking up. He was still getting used to sharing his ideas loudly with an entire group, especially being the unofficial leader’s protege. They didn’t mean to put pressure on him, he knew that. But he still felt it some days. He couldn’t imagine how Time felt. 

“Who has first watch?” Time asked the group. He wanted to get Wild settled back in a bedroll so the boy could sleep properly again. ‘Well… as properly as he could with the constant dreams and nightmares he seemed to be facing’, Time thought sadly.

“I’ll take first watch.” Warriors said quickly, beating Four and Legend to the punch. Twilight looked concerned, but Warriors shook it off. 

“I’ll take second.” Twilight claimed. It went unspoken that Twilight probably wouldn’t sleep anyway with worry plaguing his mind.

“Third!” Wind yelled over Four and Sky, shooting them both a proud smirk. He wanted to help Wild if he could, and he assumed that those on Monster Watch were also on Wild Watch. 

“Alright sounds good.” Time said indifferent while slipping into his usual gruff and calm demeanor, which was ruined slightly by the fact he was stroking Wild’s cheek to keep him calm. 

“What’s for dinner?” Wind questioned, trying to cover the sound of his stomach rumbling. Legend laughed loudly, Wind responding by punching his arm. Hard.

“Ouch! You little shit!” Legend yelled.

“I thought you said I was weak?” Wind mocked. Time rolled his eye at the boys’ squabbling as he usually did, but was silently glad the atmosphere was becoming lighter once again. He wished Wild was awake to enjoy it. Looking down at said boy, he saw a face scrunched up in pain as it had been all day. It had gotten especially bad after the moblin incident. His blood boiled at the very thought of it. Time wasn’t stupid, he knew Warriors took up first watch to offer his bedroll to Wild and to redeem himself. It wasn’t his fault what happened to Wild, but the Heroes of Courage all had the bad habit of blaming themselves when things go wrong. 

Wild at least looked more at peace than before. Time wouldn’t admit it out loud, but that coughing fit had scared the hell out of him. It scared the other boys too, Time could tell by the way he was acting.

Warriors had told him stories of his men after a battle, who were healed with potions they had in stock and thought they would be fine, only for the infection to fester without the use of potions and medicine. They would die alone in the night and would be found in the morning. Time knew why Warriors was so stressed, but they would never let that happen to Wild. 

They’d make it through though. They always have, and Time would make sure they always will until this journey was over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Wild has had a rough day.


	8. Pressure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stress begins to rise within the camp, along with it, tensions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did y’all know that being sick feels worse at night because there’s less cholesterol in your blood so the white blood cells increase their fight and therefore make the symptoms increase? What a time.
> 
> Anyway I’m back! Sorry about the recent lull in writings, I just moved onto my college campus so I’m still getting used to everything. I’m still working on requests I promise, I just want to make sure I don’t rush through them and make them bad as a result. I posted a poll on my Tumblr about which story/series I should update next, and this story won by 71%. Holy crap. The people have spoken! I hope you enjoy!
> 
> Headcanon: Whenever someone is particularly rude to Wild about his scars and asks where he got them, he just makes insane shit up that’s different every time. “Did you hear he set fire to the desert?” “What? No he got mauled by a bear…” “I heard he summoned lightning with his boomerang.” “Wait, the kid signed to me that he was in an insane cooking accident.” And the best part is all are within the realm of possibility.

Time wished he knew the reason why illnesses always got worse at night. He never understood that logic. It was something he had learned with the Kokiri. 

Time thought back to his original family. He was the only one who would get deathly ill as a child. Sure it wasn’t life threatening but it sure felt like it! The Kokiri would tease him at first, but some seemed to notice how much it actually affected him. Saria always noticed, and would always take care of him, no matter how much he protested he didn’t need it. Hylia, the other Links reminded Time so much of himself, although Time supposed that made sense. 

Whenever he was sick, Time always got worse at night. Saria never knew why either, but Time found out it happened with most Hylians, Wild included.

The sun had begun to set behind the distant mountains, but it felt as if it had been a week since Wild had gotten sick. Time had seen the extremely ill, but it was a whole new experience with someone within their group, and Wild had only been sick for a day. 

Time was going to kill him. The others teased and prodded at how Time lectured like an annoyed old man, but just wait until Wild was better. Hiding a stab wound? What in the seven hells was the boy thinking?

Something foolish in Time thought the boy would get better within the day, that by the next day or two the boy would at least be coherent, but that seemed more and more improbable, if not impossible, as the minutes filled with pained winces and incoherent murmurs ticked on. Wild’s throat seemed to only have grown more sore, painful sounding rasps escaping in unsteady succession from the boy’s mouth. Time had tried to give the boy water, but he only threw it back up. Now it was a constant struggle of choosing whether Wild suffered whilst throwing up water, or suffered while rasping out dry puffs of air. With his bruised chest throwing up seemed like the worst of the two options, but they needed to get Wild hydrated in order for him to heal properly. It was a vicious cycle. 

Legend had been searching in his bag over and over for something that would help their friend heal faster, or even simply feel better, but he had nothing they hadn’t already tried. Potions wouldn’t do anything at this moment, the salve helped with his chest pain and coughing but only to an extent, and they were scared to give him any sleeping potions in his current state. Time knew that the situation wasn’t hopeless, Wild would make it to the other side of this as he always did, but with how awful the boy obviously felt, it seemed hopeless. Time was supposed to protect these boys, and now he didn’t even know how to help. It wasn’t hopeless, but it certainly felt like it was. Especially now that dinner had come and their cook was out of commission. 

Time had learned to cook well enough in his journey to take care of himself, along with most of the other heroes, but cooking for the entire group like Wild did was a different story. 

“We should make something light for Wild.” Wind huffed.

“Is he even going to be able to eat anything?” Legend’s usual snark laced his voice, but Time noticed his concerned glance towards Wild in Warriors’ bedroll. Even those with less medical knowledge could clearly see that Wild’s condition was only getting worse. The boy’s flushed cheeks contrasted heavily with his pale skin. Wild always had a healthy tan from being in the outdoors at any possible time, but now his skin was practically translucent. Beads of sweat blended in with tears from the boy’s watering eyes, and every breath was a battle for the boy’s small chest. Overall, he looked absolutely awful. 

“He’s thrown up any soup or water we’ve tried to give him.” Warriors reminded the group. 

“He needs water to heal.” Legend ground out impatiently.

“Yes Legend, I am aware of that. How would you like us to do tha-”

“Boys.” Time cut in. He was aware they were only fighting out of care for Wild, but bickering was the last thing they needed. Although now that the group eyed him, he was starting to regret cutting in. They were looking to him for a solution, a solution he didn’t have. “You heard Hyrule. We have to let it run its course. The lack of water is worrying though. Does anyone know a Great Fairy that could help us here?” Time knew it was a long shot, the group didn’t know how to access the map in Wild’s slate and even if they did, no one knew how to get around this Hyrule fast enough. 

“No, I don’t think so. Even if we could find one, the way Wild talks about them, I don’t think they do anything besides upgrade his armor somehow, and they already did all they could with that.” Twilight spoke up, his eyes forlorn as he shot down an idea to help his cub. 

“Fairies?” Hyrule suggested. Hyrule truly wished he could do more to help, anything. His healing was practically useless now, Wild had to heal on his own with no true injuries Hyrule could heal for him. A fairy could perhaps heal an illness, although it was a long shot. Hyrule just wanted to help Wild. He jumped out of his thoughts as he felt a strong weight rest on his shoulder. Hyrule’s eyes locked with Legend’s icy blue, instantly reading the message within them. ‘Stop it.’ Hyrule smiled sheepishly as the others talked about the merits of fairy hunting in Wild’s Hyrule. Legend seemed to know when Hyrule needed to get out of his own head. He tried to return the favor when he could, but the older boy might as well be able to read minds. 

“Didn’t Wild say that fairies in his land were feral and skittish.” Four recalled, remembering how he laughed at how similar Wild was to the land he came from.

“Yeah…” Wind slumped down, eyebrows furrowed in thought of other ways to help. Casual ideas and conversation were thrown around the fire, but nothing seemed to stick. 

Twilight was listening to none of it, all his attention focused on the boy sleeping a couple of feet from him, buried under Twilight’s pelt. Some of the group members were worried his pelt would be far too warm for the cub, but they tried to compensate by keeping up with the cool cloth placed on Wild’s head. Besides, Wild absolutely freaked out whenever someone tried to take it. Hyrule tried to untuck it and let some heat out, and Wild’s restlessness got worse instantly. Rasped murmurs got louder and unsteady breathing grew more forced. Eventually the group gave up, it was too much to see Wild so deep in his hallucinations. 

That’s what Twilight had been watching for the entire evening. 

"How did it get so bad?" Wind spoke up, looking far more solemn than Twilight had seen him for a long time. 

"Four already talked about this." Legend snarked, although not as harsh as normal.

"I know but I thought he was getting better! Four's right I thought he was getting better about asking help, and he hasn't been blaming himself as much since Time talked to him that night when he sang at the campfire. I'm worried about what he's dreaming about…" Wind trailed off, his young features far too stressed and solemn. 

"It's the fever." Warriors comforted, casually chucking his scarf around the younger boy. "We can ask him when he wakes up completely why he hid it from us, but as for the constant mumbling… his dreams must be really bad." Warriors confirmed with a grim look. There was no point in lying, Wind would see through it instantly. 

"How do we help that then?" Wind huffed out. 

"We comfort him to the best of our ability. At this point, that's all we can do." Sky spoke up, glancing over at Wild’s shivering form. Sky was right, they needed to take it one step at a time, and helping Wild through his nightmares and controlling his fever was step one.

“Will it be alright to stay here? What if Wild gets hurt again?” Hyrule pressed.

“He won’t.” Warriors declared evenly. Hyrule decided not to comment. Anything he said would make it seem he was insulting Warriors in the older’s current state of mind. Hyrule knew how hard Warriors was taking it that Wild got hurt again. Twilight had continued to tune out their conversation, content to keep an eye on his cub for the time being. Twilight glanced once again at Wild’s scars, contrasting sharply against his white skin. Perhaps it was because Twilight was desperate to not dwell on the pain his cub was in, but he started to flash back to a man who had been particularly rude to Wild about the teen’s scars. The group had known Wild for long enough that he was more comfortable signing   
longer sentences, however the group were all prepared to jump in to defend their new friend. Before they could even get the chance, Wild simply shrugged.

‘That’s why I don’t cut my hair anymore.’ Wild signed slowly so the man could understand before leading the group further towards the stable. Wind, Four and Hyrule had to suppress chuckles the entire way, before the entire group burst into surprised laughter after getting out of earshot of the rude man. 

“Wild, what was that?” Sky asked, clutching his stomach. 

‘Can’t tell them the truth. Might as well have fun with it.’ Wild signed with a small but genuine smile, shoulders shaking slightly in silent laughter. After that little incident, Twilight was sure he could see Four passing Wild notes with more excuses, always making Wild smile and let puffs of air escape, which Twilight had learned was laughter. At this point, Twilight hadn’t heard his laugh yet, but was extremely thankful the kid was smiling and joking with the others. Wind and Hyrule would sometimes give Wild ideas they found funny in the middle of the night, far too many for Wild to use them all. Although Twilight’s favorite had been one Wild had come up on his own, apparently in the moment. 

They were in Wild’s Hyrule again, Wild had been getting better at talking with his voice, often switching between using sign and speaking verbally. He was still uncomfortable using his voice outside of their group, but the others were quite proud of his progress. 

Wild was leading them towards a stable surrounded by plains for the group to gather supplies and for Wild to cook the group a nice dinner. The Links were all milling about, exploring the surrounding grass and observing the animals. It had been Four that noticed the conversation that was obviously making Wild uncomfortable  
“I’m just worried about you kid. No kid’s face should be that warped! Now what the hell happened?” The man pushed, and Four’s blood boiled at the brief look of hurt on Wild’s face. ‘Warped?’ The kid was 15 for Hylia’s sake! It was none of that man’s business! If there was one thing Four was good at it was reading people, and this man was in no way concerned, he was just nosy. Four’s rigid posture alerted the rest of the Links of the situation, all ready to jump in if needed, not wanting to immediately speak up for Wild, they   
didn’t want the boy to think the others thought he was incapable of standing up for himself. 

“Oh I don’t know what happened.” The entire group was absolutely floored at hearing the teen’s voice. “You see everytime the blood moon comes around, I go to sleep.” Wild’s voice was shaky and rough, and it was obvious he was pushing through his nerves to get his story out. “And when I wake, I don’t know where I am or what happened. Sometimes I’m covered in blood, though I don’t know if its mine or the dead animals that I always see around me.” Wild said this as casual as possible, as if explaining this was an everyday occurrence or even a nuisance. The now wide-eyed man glanced from the teen before him to the group of various Links, all schooling their expressions and nodding in fake sympathy towards their friend. 

“I’ll. Um. I’ll just be… going now.” The man excused himself before sitting as far away from Wild as possible. Wild seemed to be thoroughly amused by the situation he had created, and the boys were extremely happy at the look of pride Wild had at being able to use his voice in a relatively stressful situation. Wild wasn’t ready for unexpected hugs yet, but a few soft pats on the back were given around the cooking fire that night, the entire group giggling and cackling while remembering the look on that man’s face. 

Twilight’s thoughts crashed back at the raising voices around camp. 

“We need to prepare for the worst!” Legend’s voice had a harsh bite within it.

“I understand that, but he won’t get hurt again!” Warriors bit back.

“You don’t know that! You don’t get to decide that!” Voices only continued to get more strained and tense, some others attempting to keep the peace were only ignored, including Time.

“I won’t let it happen again! I can’t! He could die if anything like that happens again!” Wind rarely heard Warriors’ voice hold that much anger and self hate, but it terrified him every time.

“He won’t die! He won’t! He-” 

“Stop it!” A harsh voice called out. The entire group froze, for it hadn't been Time who spoke, it had been Twilight. “Stop yelling. You’re scaring him.” Twilight’s voice had softened, looking down at his protege’s shaking hands trying to cover his ears, sore limbs preventing him from doing so. Twilight felt bad when he glanced up at Legend’s and Warriors’ guilt stricken faces, but Wild was obviously distressed. “Wild? Cub? Hey it’s okay.” Twilight ruffled Wild’s bangs, trying to calm the boy down. Legend approached cautiously, ensuring his presence wasn’t making anything worse. 

“We’re sorry.” Legend spoke softly for him and Warriors. “Is he having another one of his overloads you think?” Wild’s panic would most often build up to unhealthy amounts before his body completely caved under the pressure. According to a very embarrassed Wild, everything became too bright and loud, and his skin became painful and irritated.

“I’m not sure. And it’s alright, we’re all just stressed.” Twilight gave a small smile to Legend and Warriors, ensuring they knew they were forgiven. Glancing back down at Wild, he looked in the middle of another hallucination, or nightmare, whatever they were called, they were absolutely torturing Wild. 

“Stop. Stop.” Twilight and Legend could barely hear what Wild was saying through a rasped and cracked voice. 

“Stop what Cub?” Twilight asked gently, gesturing for Four or Hyrule to check up on him. Wild began to weakly thrash in his hold. “Cub, cub, shh it’s okay. I’ll make it stop. What’s wrong?” Twilight tried to comfort, but Wild only fought harder. 

“He’s hurting himself!” Wind cried out. “Let him go!” 

“We can’t! He’ll hurt himself even more!” Legend replied. Four gently smacked Wild’s cheek in a desperate attempt to wake him, wincing at the Wild’s pained grimace. 

“Cub? Cub? Wild! Link!” Twilight called out, frantic and clouded blue eyes snapped open, a large wheeze making its way out of Wild’s cracked lips. Twilight was relieved, before he looked into his cub’s eyes and saw something he never wanted to. Betrayal. Absolute betrayal. 

“You hurt me.” Wild rasped out. 

“Wait no, Cub I would never-” but Wild vehemently fought within Twilight’s hold. 

“Let me go! I did’n’ do anythin’!” Wild’s eyes only gained fog, and Twilight couldn’t see any clarity within them.

“Cub it was just a dream.” Time stepped forward, attempting to cover for Twilight, although Wild only let out a horrified gasp. 

“No, no, no.” Wild finally weaseled his way out of Twilight’s arms, collapsing right into Legend’s and Four’s. “Get him awa’ from me!” Wild rasped out, a strangled wheeze coming from his damaged ribs. “Put awa’ the torch. Stop, stop, stop.” Wild hid the scarred side of his face within Legend’s neck, continuing his rambling about Time and a torch, begging them all to stop. Four had never seen Time and Twilight so horrified. They both looked utterly heartbroken. 

“Shh it’s okay.” Four reassured Wild, rubbing his cool hand on the back of Wild’s sweaty neck. “It’s all okay now. No one’s hurting you.” Four sent an apologetic look to Time and Twi, both keeping as silent as possible to decrease Wild’s fear. 

“We’ll protect ya’” Legend continued awkwardly, rubbing his hand up and down Wild’s spine. This wasn’t the first time he had comforted Wild, but it was always hard. It was best to do what he did with Hyrule. “No one's gonna hurt you anymore.” Legend also sent a sad look to Time and Twilight, feeling shitty at the simple implication of protecting Wild from the two of them. 

“I’ll do better.” Wild’s cracked voice spoke up weakly, sounding as if he ran across the entirety of his Hyrule. 

“You don’t need to, you’re already doing great.” Legend looked to Warriors for help, as much as he didn’t want to admit it, but Warriors looked as lost as he did.

“It burns.” Wild whispered, and Legend felt his neck continue to grow wet with this poor kid’s tears. 

“I’m sorry kid. It’ll be okay.” Legend tightened his arms around the teen in his lap, glancing up at the group for any ideas of what else he should be doing.

“M’ so tired.” Wild sobbed into his neck, groaning as his ribs protested.

“You can rest kiddo.” Legend soothed.

“No. You’ll leave. Not th’ shrine. Not ‘gain.” Wild protested, voice growing fainter by the minute. Oh Hylia, they should have known Wild’s confusion would lead back to the shrine again. Wild had told them of the song about his legend, how he shielded Zelda against a constant onslaught of Guardian beams. Looking at his scars, no one could imagine what he looked like when they put him in the Shrine of Resurrection. He was just a child...

“We won’t leave Wild. We’ll be right here when you wake up. No more shrine.” Four confirmed, Hyrule approached with a cool rag to put on Wild’s neck.

“You left. You left.” Wild murmured. Wind got a look at Wild’s right eye, his scarred side still pressed against Legend, as if desperately trying to hide it. Wild’s normally vibrant eyes were a foggy blue. Behind pooling tears, Wild’s eyes didn’t shine like usual, only showing exhaustion and fear. 

“We’ll never leave, Wild. We’re right here.” Hyrule, although he knew that he could never promise that. Legend had told him that once, that in their lives they could never guarantee anything, but what could be guaranteed is that Legend would never purposefully leave Hyrule alone. Hyrule’s ears perked at another person approaching. Sky had brought water into Four’s waiting hands, before returning to stand beside Wind and Warriors once again.

“Hey, Hyrule. If you heal Wild a little bit after he drinks, will it be easier to keep down? He needs water.” Without looking, it would seem Four was being casual, but Hyrule rarely saw his friend this concerned, eyes turning a stranger amber in the firelight. 

“I don’t know if it will do anything, but it’s worth a try.” Hyrule understood Four’s thought process well enough. His healing didn’t really physically help, but it might help Wild’s body just enough to let him keep down water. Maybe. 

“Are you sure you’re okay to do this? We’ve talked about this Hyrule you can’t push yourself to the brink of death.” Legend interrupted. 

“I’ll be fine. I’m not tired.” Okay that was a little bit of a lie. Hyrule was tired, but not to the point of utter exhaustion. He would most likely just sleep heavier tonight. Hyrule resisted shrinking under Legend’s scrutinizing look. After a long moment, Legend nodded, deeming it safe enough. 

“Wild? You need to drink.” Wild was either ignoring him, or lost in his own head. Legend glanced up at Twilight, looking for anything to go off of. Twilight gestured to his pelt and mouthed something. Oh! Legend understood now.

“Wild? Cub? You need to drink something.” The nickname felt foreign on Legend’s tongue. He had his own names for Wild, not all of them as endearing, but if this would help Wild then so be it. Thankfully, instead of panicking, Wild let out a broken hum in acknowledgment.

“Cub, you need water.” Legend pressed.

“Hurts.” Wild croaked out, burrowing further into Legend.

“It will make it hurt less, I promise.” Legend had no idea how much or how little to say with Wild’s brain so addled, but it seemed to work. Legend continued to coax Wild out of his neck.

“Just take some small sips. It’ll help.” Four encouraged.

“No. It’ll hurt.” Wild rebutted probably talking about throwing it right back up again, the brat as stubborn as always even when sick and delusional. 

“You can keep it down.” Legend stated, although he himself had absolutely no idea if Wild would be able to keep anything down at all. 

“Please Wild?” Hyrule asked, and after a moment of thought, surprisingly Wild gave a tiny nod, lifting a weak and shaky hand to grab the bottle.

“I got it buddy.” Four gently placed Wild’s arm back down to his side. Four gently took the bottle of water and put it to Wild’s lips. “Small sips.” Four reminded gently, looking to see if Hyrule was ready, pouring a small amount of water for Wild. Wild coughed and whined, the water burning his throat. Hyrule took that as his signal to start healing, placing his hand on Wild’s shoulder, he tried his best to ignore his best friend’s flinch. Once again Hyrule let the life around him manipulate itself into Wild, aiming it throughout his body this time, not just the injuries. Wild melted in Legend’s hold, and Hyrule felt absolute despair at pulling his hand away. Wild tensed up again at the loss of contact.

“It’s okay Wild he’s still here. Can you drink some more water?” Four pleaded, Wild simply shook his head. Four looked like he was about to protest, but Time cleared his throat. Turning around, Four saw Time shaking his head slightly. Perhaps if they gave him anymore they were pushing it with Wild’s nausea. 

“Okay Wild. That’s alright. You did great.” Four reassured, burying down his worry. The water was a start. That’s what they needed right now. They needed a start. 

“Why d’ they hate m’?” Wild whispered lowly, noticing Twilight’s and Time presence again. Legend glanced back at Twilight, the man was struggling to keep his eyes completely dry. Legend wouldn’t mention it to anyone, Twilight deserved that at least. 

“They would never hate you.” Hyrule comforted, biting his lip when Wild shook his head. 

“Burned me.” Wild’s voice was small and full of fear, like if Twilight and Time heard he would be in danger.

“It was a dream, Wild. A nightmare. They would never.” Four adjusted the cloth on the back of Wild’s neck.

“They hate me.” Wild sobbed once more, growing quiet. 

“None of us hate you, Pyro.” Legend decided to stop with the whole ‘Cub’ thing, it seemed to only be making Wild panic now. Wild’s grip on the back of Legend’s tunic loosened, and they knew that Wild had succumbed to sleep once again.

~

“He thinks I hate him.” Twilight whispered, voice cracking ever so slightly. 

“It was just a dream, Pup. He’ll realize that later.” Time wrapped his arm around Twilight, but Twi could see the sadness in his eyes, and the horror and surprise when Wild was terrified of him. 

“Time? Come over here please?” Four called over hesitantly. He didn’t want to interrupt Time and Twilight’s talk, but they needed to discuss what to do with Wild. Time squeezed his arm around Twilight once more before letting go and kneeling beside Wild. Twilight could only pick up parts of their conversation, if Wild is drinking enough water or if they need to travel again and find a doctor. No, Wild can’t travel right now and we have no idea where to begin to look. If Hyrule’s magic helped at all or if it was a coincidence Wild has kept the water down so far. Perhaps a bit of both. If they should put Twilight’s pelt back on Wild or if that would send him into a panic attack. Ouch, that one stung. Twilight’s heart completely dropped at the idea of him being the reason Wild had an attack. Twilight jumped at a heavy hand landing on his shoulder, only testifying to how deep in thought he was.

“Stop blaming yourself. It was a nightmare created in his head, We all know you and Time would never do anything to purposefully hurt Wild.” Warriors kept his hand on Twilight, speaking softly.

“Right back at you.” Twilight snarked with far more fire than he intended. “Sorry. But we’ve all seen you beating yourself up. It hurts for us to see. Wild would want you to know it’s not your fault if he was awake.” Twilight looked into Warriors’ bright blue eyes, noticing the self hatred he had seen in the mirror so many times. 

“I was right there.” Warriors snarled, but not at Twilight, at himself. 

“None of us saw where that moblin went War. It basically teleported. You know monsters are being infected. If you hadn’t been there to cut it down Wild might be dead.” Twilight’s heart twinged the very thought of his cub dying in that fight, but Warriors needed to understand. 

“I just feel worthless.” Warriors sighed, eyes lost.

“Join the club. No one knows what’s going on right now. We’re all just doing our best, and so are you. Stop blaming yourself.” Twilight saw the thoughts racing through Warriors’ head, before he smirked lightly and clapped Twilight on the back. 

“I will if you will.” Twilight snorted.

“Deal.”

~

“Legeeeend.” Hyrule protested as he was dragged back to his bedroll.

“Don’t Legeeeend me.” Legend grumbled. “You’ve been healing Wild all day, I see the bags under your eyes. You’re going to bed.” Legend dropped Hyrule onto the boy’s bedroll (far gentler than usual, Hyrule would tease him about that later). 

“We haven’t even had food yet!” Hyrule argued, glaring at a snickering Wind and Sky. 

“Then rest until we do.” Legend stated simply, turning to go help Sky at the cooking fire. Usually when Hyrule or Wild were banished to their bedroll, the other would come and talk quietly while the others milled about camp. This time however, Hyrule was banished by himself.

Hyrule didn’t dare try to escape however, not feeling like facing Legend’s wrath. But he wasn’t tired!

~

Legend smirked at Hyrule passed out on top of his bedroll. Kid hadn’t even lasted five minutes. He’d wake him up for a bit whenever dinner was ready.

Hyrule was sleeping peacefully, breaths coming slow and soft. The direct opposite of Wild, who still struggled to breathe even in sleep. Legend was thankful at least one of them was sleeping properly, but Wild was hard to look at when the little pyro was in that much pain.

“Are we going to stay here until he gets better?” Sky asked without judgement. It was obvious he would help with whatever the group decided, but it was a conversion they needed to have. Legend found his silent respect for Sky growing once again.

“At least until he’s fit to travel.” Time replied, and Legend found himself not the least bit jealous of Time’s position. Being looked to by eight different Heroes of Courage was not a job Legend would do well in. Hylia knew the younger ones were enough of a handful.

“Do we know how long that will be?” Wind asked cautiously, not wanting to bring further stress to the group.

“No idea.” Twilight huffed. Legend could tell the man was struggling staying away from his protege. They decided it would be best to cover Wild in Twilight’s pelt once again. If Wild woke to find it missing, he might truly think that Twilight hated him. But having Twi stay away from Wild was a good idea for the time being.

“Will he be alright?” Wind asked quieter this time. The kid was impossibly strong, but still a kid worried for his brother. 

“Yeah. He’ll be okay.” Warriors reassured, sounding more sure than he had all day. 

And he was right, they would make sure of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact my childhood nickname was also little pyro. I'll let you guess why.


	9. The Eye in the Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As selfish as it sounded, Wild's sickness hadn't just taken its toll on him, but his brothers as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here it is! Thank you all so much for being so supportive during and after my break from writing. As many of you know, I’m struggling a lot with everything going on and it means the world to me that y’all are so sweet and supportive. I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!

**Chapter 9 - The Eye in the Storm**

Time didn’t just dread injuries because he grew worried. Of course he worried when one of the boys was injured, it was always terrible to see one of his companions in pain. But he also dreaded it because there was one emotion he truly feared for both himself and the others… boredom. 

Staying in one place for an extended period of time got all the Links restless in different ways. The only bright side of this situation was he didn’t have to worry about Wild fist fighting a bear for fun. He did however, have to worry about the others. He had to worry about Four and Legend disappearing and returning covered in flora and fauna they wanted to observe. He had to worry about Hyrule and Warriors getting a hold of fire weapons. He had to worry about Sky and Twilight going cliff diving if they were around an ocean. The same went for Wind if he got his hands on a raft, they might not see him for hours. He also had to worry about himself, the part of him that never disappeared after years of Termina and stasis and countless travels through time, itching to run away and become a child of the forest again, even if just for a day. Time worked hard to push those thoughts down. 

Sky had managed to throw together something that night after their small fight over what they should have. They had managed without Wild’s skills and slate before, they could do it again. However, it was obvious the antsy group missed their cook. Said boy was still curled in Warriors’ bed roll, cold clothes placed upon both his forehead and neck after his last bout of delirium. Delirium that Time truly wished he could forget.

Based on what the terrified boy had murmured, Twilight and Time, two of the eight people he should be able to trust most, practically tortured him. Time going as far to burn him with a  _ torch _ . And Din above was that a knife to the heart. Time knows, he  _ knows  _ that fever dreams didn’t make sense, but weren’t all dreams from the subconscious? Did Wild think that would happen? Was he scared deep down that his allies would become his enemies? Time wanted to say no, but he was never one to lie to himself. After all Wild had gone through, parts of him would never be unscathed. The same went for every Link, after all they had been through. Time was more worried about what the boy’s Hyrule had done to him. Forced into battle before he was even a teenager, betrayed and murdered by the Guardians he was supposed to trust, constantly on the lookout for traitors sworn to Ganon, it was no wonder the boy was paranoid. And these fears were constantly in his nightmares. The fever dreams must have been Hell.

Twilight wasn’t taking it well either. He seemed to have calmed down a bit after his conversation with Warriors, but Time could tell this was all getting to him. The lengths Twilight would go to help his friends was admirable, if not terrifying sometimes. But no amount of healing, potions, and worrying would fix this, and that was starting to sink in for everyone. No matter how much Twilight did, all he could was try and make it better. Twilight didn’t cope well with not being able to help, none of them did, especially with Wild. 

Speaking of, Wild had been dead silent since he had passed out in Legend’s arms. Besides the small rasps coming from his mouth and the weak stutters of his chest, the boy was completely still. After some debate they decided to put Twilight’s pelt over him again. It had always been comforting to him, and who knows if he would even remember his panic over what Dream Twilight did to him. Hylia, Time hoped not. Time hoped Wild’s silence meant he was having a good enough dream, or maybe not dreaming at all.

The chatter around the campfire was scarce that night, no one having the energy to talk outside the small conversations they had with those near them. Legend seemed perfectly fine with shoving a groggy Hyrule back to bed as soon as he finished dinner. Hyrule certainly didn’t put up much of a fight, clearly tired from healing Wild throughout the day. It wasn’t the worst they had seen him after healing, but there was no reason for him to not sleep it off. As much as Time didn’t want to admit it, they may need Hyrule’s abilities later. Nothing else seemed to be helping. Time didn’t want to make Hyrule feel like they were exploiting him, but Wild needed water and the only time he was able to keep it down was when Hyrule healed him. Time wasn’t willing to believe that was a coincidence, they needed to get Wild to hold down any water they could. But Time truly wanted anything else than to wake up their exhausted sorcerer. It was quite a conundrum.

“I could hear you thinking from across camp.” Sky stated softly, settling beside Time. 

“I don’t want to wake Hyrule, but Wild needs water.” Time said bluntly, not having the desire to beat around the bush. 

“Hmm. Well.” Sky pondered for a moment. “Wild can go the night right? When I was little, I was really stubborn when I was sick. Sun tried to get me to eat, drink, or do anything really and I just wouldn’t.” Sky put his hand on Time’s shoulder. “ I know it’s not the same thing, but let’s give Wild the night, and as long as his condition doesn’t change, we’ll let Hyrule rest for a while. Now that we’re staying here for the time being, we can let Hyrule rest and help Wild a bit until he can keep things down. I know it’s not the best solution, but we all know you’re not trying to force Hyrule into exhausting himself.” Sky radiated comfort, and Time felt bad for subtly soaking it up. It wasn’t fair, he shouldn’t force decisions on the other Links. But Hylia, he was just so  _ tired _ .

“Sounds like a good plan.” Time’s lips turned up slightly, and Sky knew that was a thank you. A thank you for taking some weight off of Time’s shoulders, even if it was a laughably small amount. But it was the least Sky could do. 

~

Wild was pretty sure he was stone. There was no other reason for his limbs to be so heavy. The only thing he could really feel was pain. He couldn’t be sure where it was the worst, he was floating. He just knew he was  _ cold.  _ So, so cold. Wild didn’t like being cold, not when after he learned there were ways to be truly warm. Another feeling reached him, weight on top of him that he appreciated, and the fluttering of eyelashes he struggled to recognize as his own.

“...think- waking up.” Voices drifted in and out of his mind. 

“-nother… -mare?” These voices sounded weird.

“-ild?” These were outside of his body. 

Opening his eyes took more strength than anything he had ever done, but he needed to see where the voices were coming from. Slowly his eyes pried open.

Everything was blurry, but he could see shadows moving around him. If they were enemies, he couldn’t bring himself to care. It wasn’t like he could move anyway. 

“Wild?” A voice filtered into his head, more clear than before. Colors swirled as he pried open his eyes, and Wild struggled to push down the nausea that rose, determined to find out where the voices were coming from. 

“Wild? Can you hear us?” The fog cleared slightly, the first thing he saw being a colorful tunic. He knew that voice… right?

The swirling subsided a little more, now resting on the edges of his vision. The shadows that previously surrounded him were replaced by figures he recognized. He tried so hard to remember their names, and why he suddenly felt like crying. He didn’t know anything in that moment other than the figures surrounding him being warm, and Wild was still so cold.

“C-c-ld” Wild croaked out pathetically, frustration creeping up to replace confusion. Something cold and wet was surrounding him, soaking his skin. He tried to move his head in a weak attempt to get rid of the cold, but all he got was vertigo.

“Sor-... -an’t. Fever i-” Ringing filled Wild’s ears.

~

“I think he’s waking up.” Four rushed out, bringing the idle chatter around the fire to an abrupt halt. Lo and behold, the boy’s eyes fluttered, eyes flickering beneath. 

“Do you think it’s another nightmare?” Wind called out hesitantly.

“I can’t tell. Wild?” Four called softly, placing his hands on his shoulder. Blurry eyes opened, revealing a sickly haze. But they weren’t frantic, just exhausted.

“I don’t think he is. He isn’t panicked. Wild?” Four asked again as the others gathered closer around him. Legend, Sky and Warriors gathered behind Four, while Time and Twilight stayed back, clearly uncomfortable with potentially sending him into another panic. Wind stayed back with them and held onto Twilight’s hand, squeezing when he noticed how much not being able to help hurt Twilight. The older squeezed back in thanks.

“Wild?” Sky asked. “Can you hear us?” The sick boy’s half lucid eyes flickered in their direction, and they could have thrown a goddess damned party over such a simple action. Legend almost went over and woke Hyrule to celebrate. Wild hadn’t been this coherent since he got smacked into that tree, not without being in a hallucination. His eyes were fogged and consciousness was barely there, but it was still the most awake he had been since this whole thing started. 

“C-c-ld.” Wild croaked out, shaking his head slowly. Four reached out and gently stopped the movement, worried for the headache Wild was probably sporting. 

“I’m so sorry, Wild but we can’t. Your fever is too high, we’ve done everything we can.” Sky tried to reassure, but he doubted Wild understood any of it. He looked to Four to confirm Wild’s fever still hadn’t broken. Four solemnly shook his head. Wild’s eyes continued to look around, seeming to search for something, but the others didn’t know for what. 

“W-lf.” Wild choked out, his weak right hand reached out, only making it an inch before tumbling back down against his chest, clutching weakly at the furs laid on top of him. 

“Wolf? Are you trying to say wolf?” Legend asked, glancing back at Twilight. 

“W-” Wild was cut off by a rough cough. Four was ready to roll him over for choking that never came. Time could see the relief the other Links had that Wild seemed to be better, if not slightly. He wanted to remind them that this was just an eye in the storm, that sometimes with illnesses it got better before it got worse… but he didn’t have the strength to crush their hope. Deep down they all knew this wasn’t the beginning of the downhill, it was just a lull. But they deserved to have a little joy after all they had seen Wild go through. 

“He’s the most coherent he’s been in awhile. We should give him water.” Warriors pulled a water pouch from seemingly nowhere. 

“W-w-lf.” Wild insisted. 

“Get over there! You heard him!” Wind whisper-shouted, shoving Twilight forward with a small snicker. Twilight hesitantly made his way over to Wild, eyes burned into him, watching to see what Wild’s reaction would be. He knew the other Links didn’t mean to freak him out, but they certainly weren’t helping. 

Twilight gently kneeled on one knee next to Wild on the other side of Four, ready to back track if Wild showed any sign of discomfort at Twilight being there. 

“Hey Cub.” Wild’s eyes stopped for a moment, and the entire world halted, everyone waited with bated breath. Slowly eyes flickered over to Twilight, and eyes that had been dull for so long finally lit up, if only just by a little spark. 

“W-ol-T-Twi.” Wild gasped, and the others could have sworn Wild’s lips twitched upwards. 

“Yeah, Cub.” Twilight’s shoulders relaxed, dropping completely to both knees as the other Links smiled. Legend thought about teasing the cheesy sight before him but thought better of it. Hyrule would love to see Wild doing better. Aw shit, Hyrule slept through this. Hyrule was gonna  _ kill  _ him-

“See if you can get him to drink some water. He doesn’t seem as nauseous” Warriors insisted, handing Twilight the water pouch. 

“What if he throws it up?” Sky questioned.

“He can’t keep going like this.” Legend nodded to Twilight to try. 

“Alright, Cub. This might hurt for a moment.” Twilight soothed, before lifting Wild’s back gently into his lap, the cub’s head resting against his lower chest. With only a small gasp of pain, Wild was situated well enough. 

“Small sips.” Twilight directed, carefully pouring some water into Wild’s mouth. The boy coughed a little, but soon strained to get more cool water into his sore throat. “Slow down.” Twilight soothed, placing his hand on Wild’s forehead to stop his squirming. Wild managed to drink half the small pouch before obviously having his fill. 

“Thank Hylia.” Sky breathed.

“Don’t thank her yet.” Legend huffed. “He could still heave it back up.” 

“Maybe stop talking about it around him and he won’t.” Warriors hissed.

“How ya feeling Wild?” Four asked, deciding now would be a good time for a change of subject.

“Ngh.” Came the eloquent response. It was better than Four expected in all honesty. Twilight snorted a little at that.

“That good huh?” Twilight chuckled. He went to put Wild down and let the boy get the sleep he obviously needed. But the cub reached up and grabbed Twilight’s hand where it had come to rest on the boy's chest. Twilight could have easily shaken off the weak hand if he wished, but Hylia hadn’t Wild gone through enough already?

Wild’s eyes flickered up once more, resting on Twilight’s face. The cub’s hand squeezed so light Twilight could barely feel it, and the man quickly covered their hands with his other one. Wild’s hands were cold and pale.

“S-stay.” Wild pleaded.

“Okay, Cub. I’ll stay.”


End file.
